Sex  and  Sex  Worship 


(Phallic  Worship 


(X   A.  WALL,  M.D.,  Ph.G.,  Ph.VL 


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Sex  and  Sex  Worship 

(Phallic  Worship) 


Sex  and  Sex  Worship 

(Phallic  Worship) 


A   Scientific   Treatise   on  Sex,   its   Nature   and  Function,   and  its 

Influence  on  Art,  Science,  Architecture,  and  Religion — with  Special 

Reference  to  Sex  Worship  and  Symbolism 


BY 
O.  A.  WALL,  M.D.,  Ph.G.,  Ph.M. 

Author  of  "Handbook  of  Pharmacognosy,"  "The  Prescription,"  "Elementary  Lessons 
in  Latin,"  etc.,  etc. 


THREE  HUNDRED  SEVENTY-TWO  ILLUSTRATIONS 


ST.   LOUIS 

C.  V.  MOSBY  COMPANY 

1922 


COPYRIGHT,  1918,  1919,  1920,  1922,  BY  C.  V.  MOSBY  COMPANY 
(.All  Rights   Strictly   Reserved) 


(Printed   in    U.    S.    A.) 


Press    of 

C.  V.  Mosby  Company 
St.  Louis,  U.S.A. 


NonCfre 
Reading 
Ctr,  % 


PREFACE 

Years  ago,  it  was  my  good  fortune  to  have  the  opportunity  to 
examine  and  read  a  collection  of  curious  books  on  sex  matters. 
As  I  read,  I  made  notations  of  many  facts  that  I  wished  to  remem- 
ber, and  I  also  annexed  references  to  the  sources  from  which  1 
had  acquired  the  knowledge.  Many  of  these  memoranda,  if  they 
were  short,  were  literal  copies  ;  longer  ones  were  abridged,  others 
were  merely  paraphrased;  all  of  them  were  written  partly  with 
word  and  phrase  signs,  such  as  stenographers  used,  to  make  the 
work  as  little  as  possible. 

Then,  at  my  leisure  I  made  clean  copy  of  this  material,  ar- 
ranging it  according  to  subject  matter,  with  numbered  references 
to  the  book  in  which  I  had  the  original  material.  This  latter  book 
was  destroyed  during  the  cyclone  of  1896,  together  with  many 
other  of  my  books,  by  becoming  watersoaked  and  illegible  by 
water  coming  into  a  bookcase  from  damage  to  the  roof  im- 
mediately over  it.  I  could  not  now  say  which  of  the  facts  stated 
were  literal  quotations,  or  from  what  authors,  and  which  were 
passages  original  with  me,  or  freely  paraphrased  by  me.  I  have 
attempted  to  place  quotation  marks  wherever  I  could  remember 
that  the  matter  was  a  quotation,  but  I  may  have  failed  to  properly 
mark  other  passages  as  quotations  ;  I  speak  of  this  to  disclaim  any 
conscious  or  intentional  plagiarism,  if  such  plagiarism  should  have 
occurred,  for  I  have  freely  used  matter  written  by  others  if  they 
said  anything  in  an  exceptionally  good  manner. 

The  material,  prior  to  1896,  was  mainly  from  the  private 
library  referred  to  above,  which  was  sold,  I  was  told,  to  an  eastern 
collector  of  erotica,  after  the  owner's  death.  But  any  reference  to 
the  subject  found  elsewhere,  in  current  literature,  in  encyclo- 
pedias, histories,  magazines,  novels,  newspapers,  etc.,  was  also 
used  and  much  of  the  matter  was  contributed  by  friends  who  were 
aware  that  I  was  gathering  this  material.  For  example,  the  picture 
of  the  burning  of  a  negro  at  Texarkana  in  1892  (see  page  340)  was 
sent  me  by  a  member  of  the  State  Board  of  Pharmacy  of  Texas 
at  that  time. 

I  am  sorry  that  the  accident  of  the  cyclone  prevents  me  from 


Vlll  PREFACE 

giving  due  credit  to  everyone  and  every  source  of  information  I 
consulted,  but  it  does  not  affect  the  information  itself. 

When  * '  Psychopathia  Sexualis"  by  Krafft-Ebing,  and  similar 
works  by  Moll,  Lombroso,  etc.,  appeared  in  print,  I,  at'  the  request 
of  some  of  my  professional  friends  prepared  a  series  of  lectures 
for  them,  showing  that  sexual  " perversions,"  described  in  these 
works  as  insanities,  were  in  reality  deliberate  vices,  the  results  of 
vicious  teachings  which  had  come  to  us  by  transmission  and  teach- 
ings from  the  Greek  and  Roman  schools  in  which  slaves  were 
trained  in  libidinous  arts,  to  make  them  more  valuable  to  luxury- 
loving  purchasers,  their  masters  and  mistresses.  But  of  this  mat- 
ter little  or  none  is  used  in  this  book,  which  does  not  pretend  to 
treat  of  that  phase  of  sexual  life  and  sexual  practices. 

Recently  I  was  asked  to  write  my  studies  on  sex  for  publica- 
tion, in  order  that  the  work  might  not  be  lost.  As  the  views  on 
these  subjects  have  materially  changed  among  the  learned  among 
the  public  since  the  time  when  the  collection  of  this  information 
was  first  begun,  I  consented,  and  this  book  is  the  result. 

The  facts  gathered  about  phallic  religion  led  me  to  doubt 
whether  this  was  ever  a  religion  from  all  other  religions  apart; 
it  appeared  to  me  to  be  merely  a  phase  in  the  evolution  of  all  re- 
ligions. Nor  was  it  a  real  worship  of  the  generative  organs,  but 
rather  a  use  of  representations  of  the  phallus  and  yoni  as  symbols 
for  certain  religious  ideas  which  were  embodied  in  nature-worship. 

Mankind,  when  it  gave  expression  to  its  first  dawnings  of  re- 
ligious thoughts,  wove  a  fabric  of  myths  and  theories  about  re- 
ligion, the  warp  of  which  ran  through  from  earliest  historical 
times  to  our  own  days  as  threads  of  the  warp  of  philosophies  and 
theories  about  sex,  male,  female,  love,  passion,  lust,  desire,  pro- 
creation, offspring,  etc. ;  while  the  succeeding  ages  and  civilizations 
wove  into  this  warp  the  woof  of  the  individual  religions,  the  myths 
and  fables  of  gods  and  goddesses,  so  that  the  whole  fabric  of  be- 
liefs, though  at  first  coarse  and  poor,  became  more  refined  as 
mankind  itself  advanced,  by  a  process  of  revelation  which  con- 
sisted in  a  gradual  unfolding  of  truths  in  the  consciousness  and 
consciences  of  innumerable  thinkers,  until  our  present  religions 
were  produced,  and  which  process  of  revelation  is  still  going  on 
and  will  continue  until  all  that  is  fantastic,  irrational,  unbeliev- 
able, is  eradicated  from  our  faiths. 


PREFACE  IX 

We  read  in  the  Bible  (Micah,  vi,  8) :  "What  doth  the  Lord  re- 
quire of  thee,  but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk 
humbly  before  thy  God?"  In  other  words,  to  act  fairly  towards 
our  fellow-men  is  all  there  is  of  religion  that  is  worth  while. 

The  theories  that  are  taught  and  the  myths  we  are  asked  to 
believe,  are  non-essential.  We  can  not  comprehend  how  the  world 
could  exist,  without  having  been  created,  but  neither  can  we  com- 
prehend how  it  could  have  been  created;  we  can  not  comprehend 
how  or  where  there  can  be  a  Power  to  create  a  universe,  or  under- 
stand the  nature  of  such  a  Power.  But  the  theorizing  on  such  sub- 
jects has  formed  our  religions.  Matthew  Arnold  wrote: 

' '  Children  of  Men !    The  unseen  Power  whose  eye 

Forever  doth  accompany  mankind 
Hath  looked  on  no  religion  scornfully 
That  mankind  did  ever  find. ' ' 

Possibly  as  good  a  definition  of  religion  as  we  can  find  is 
Carlyle's  saying:  "His  religion  at  best  is  an  anxious  wish, — like 
that  of  Rabelais,  a  great  Perhaps." 

In  the  course  of  years  I  have  accumulated  many  illustrations 
on  art,  religion,  etc.,  some  of  which  are  used  in  this  book.  But 
many  that  would  most  drastically  (but  possibly  also  offensively) 
have  shown  the  crude  phallism  of  the  earlier  stages  of  religious 
thought,  such  as  many  sculptures  from  the  temple  ruins  of  Egypt, 
or  the  collection  of  paintings,  or  utensils  from  the  Roman  homes 
in  Pompeii  or  Herculaneum,  had  to  be  omitted  out  of  deference  to 
modern  ideas  of  propriety,  although  they  would  have  cast  an  in- 
teresting and  illuminating,  albeit  lurid  light  on  the  history  of  the 
phallic  phase  in  religions. 

In  recording  here  what  I  have  found  in  my  reading  and  the 
conclusions  at  which  I  have  arrived,  I  do  not  attempt  to  even  ap- 
proximately exhaust  the  vast  field  of  details.  But  I  attempt  to 
present  the  truths  as  recorded  in  history,  as  I  see  them,  even 
though,  as  George  Eliot  said: 

"Truth  has  rough  flavor  if  we  bite  it  through." 

0.  A.  WALL. 

St.  Louis,  U.  8.  A. 


CONTENTS 


SEX 

Primitive  ideas  about  sex,  2;  Heaven  and  earth,  3;  Creator  hermaphrodite,  5; 
Plato's  idea,  5;  Hindu  story  of  creation  of  animals,  5. 

MODERN  RELIGIONS 

Definition,  6 ;  Father,  7 ;  Bibles,  8 ;  Brahmanism,  8 ;  Hindu  Trinity,  9 ;  Jewish 
and  Christian  Bible,  9;  Bibliolatry,  10;  Oral  transmission,  11;  Koran,  13;  Statistics 
of  religion,  14. 

OTHER  BELIEFS 

Shintoism,  14;  Taoism,  14;  Confucianism,  14;  Buddhism,  14;  Gautama,  16; 
Lamaism,  18;  Statistics,  19;  Shamanism,  20. 

HOW  OLD  IS  MANKIND 

Geological  ages,  20 ;  Darwinism,  22 ;  Earliest  writing,  23 ;  Earth 's  age,  24 ; 
Age  of  man,  24;  Pithecanthropus,  26;  Alalus,  28;  Inhabitants  of  Pacific  Islands,  29; 
Similarity  of  Aztec  and  Asiatic  civilizations,  31 ;  Aztec  crucifix,  33 ;  How  many  races 
of  man,  34 ;  Biblical  account,  34 ;  Other  accounts,  34 ;  Preglacial  art,  35 ;  Early  records, 
36;  Evolution,  37. 

NATURE  OF  SEX 

Mystery,  39 ;  Death  and  reproduction,  40 ;  Death  angel,  41 ;  Styx  and  Charon, 
43;  Disease  demons,  45;  Witchcraft,  46. 

NATURE  OF  REPRODUCTION 

Fission,  49;  Asexual,  49;  Budding,  50;  Conjugation,  52;  Anabolism,  52;  Katabo- 
lism,  53 ;  Evolution  of  sex,  53 ;  Impregnation,  55 ;  Parthenogenesis,  57 ;  Hermaphro- 
ditism,  58 ;  Atavism,  59 ;  Determination  of  sex,  61 ;  Nourishment,  61 ;  Parthenogenesis 
in  insects,  64. 

STATUS  OF  WOMAN 

In  Dahomey,  68;  Jus  primae  noetic,  60;  Biblical,  69;  Has  woman  a  soul?  70; 
Infanticide,  72 ;  Socialistic  communities,  73 ;  Mosaic  law,  74 ;  in  England,  76 ;  Woman 's 
dress,  78;  Koran  on  woman,  78;  Slavery  of  woman,  79;  Whipping  women,  82;  Chastity 
belts,  83;  Census  on  woman,  89. 

COSMOGONIES 

Genesis,  91;  Books  of  Moses,  95;  Legend  of  Sargon,  96;  Days  of  Genesis,  97; 
Koran,  creation,  97;  Persian  version,  97;  Years,  98;  Months,  98;  Weeks,  98;  Zodiac, 
99;  Days  of  the  week,  99;  Sabbath,  101. 


Xll  CONTENTS 

GEMETEIA 

Antichrist,   102;    Lucky  and  unlucky   days,   and  numbers,   103;    Creation   of   the 
world,  Philo,  104;   Six,  104;  Numbers  have  sex,  104. 

BIBLE  OF  THE  GREEKS 

Writings  of  Hesiod  and  Homer,  106;  Birth  of  Venus,  108;  Eros,  109;  Baby- 
lonian account  of  creation,  110;  Brahmanic  account,  111;  Buddhism,  112;  Origin  of 
religious  sentiment,  gratitude,  114;  fear,  116;  Ancestor  worship,  115;  Manes,  115; 
Phallus  as  a  symbol,  116;  People  without  religion,  118;  Persian  views,  119;  Hindus, 
120;  Are  mythologies  religions?  121;  Caves,  Cybele,  121;  Demiurge,  122;  Mandaeans, 
123;  Assurbanipal 's  library,  124;  Avesta,  124;  Story  of  flood,  125;  Cosmic  egg,  126. 


Iggdrasil,  128;  Ash  tree,  129;  Alder  tree,  129;  Birch,  129;  Lupercalia,  130;  Fir 
tree,  130;  Marriage  to  trees,  130;  Birth  trees,  131;  Gender  of  plant  names,  131;  Sex 
in  plants,  134;  Fertilization  in  plants,  136. 

SEX  IN  ANIMALS  AND   MANKIND 

Lilith,  139;  Prakriti,  139;  Adam  a  hermaphrodite,  139;  Purusha,  140;  Breath 
the  fertilizing  agent,  140 ;  Seed  from  male  alone,  140 ;  Right  side  of  body  male,  left 
female,  143 ;  Ancient  views  of  sex,  145 ;  Medieval  views,  147 ;  Modern  views,  149. 

LIGHT  ON  A  DARK  SUBJECT 

Female,  150 ;  Vulva,  151 ;  Pelvic  organs,  151 ;  Menses,  152 ;  Human  ovum,  153 ; 
Pregnancy,  154;  Mammary  gland,  156;  Male,  157;  Spermatozoon,  158;  Male  genitals, 
159;  Coition,  160;  Masturbation,  162;  Onanism,  163;  Sexual  instinct,  166;  Coition, 
how  often,  174;  seasons  for,  175;  Sexual  passion,  175;  Rutting  odor,  177. 

SOCIAL  RELATIONS  OF  MEN  AND  WOMEN 

Promiscuity,  180;  Monogamy,  181;  Family,  183;  Marriage  by  capture,  185; 
Polygamy  or  Polygyny,  187;  Marriage  by  purchase  of  wives,  190;  Marriage  to  sisters, 
192;  Kabbalah,  193;  Free  love,  199;  Double  standard  of  morality,  200;  Polyandry,  200; 
Concubinage,  202;  Prostitution,  204;  Celibacy,  205;  Asceticism,  207;  Skopsi,  211; 
Eunuchs  or  Castrati,  212. 

GRATIFICATION  OF  THE  SENSES 

Sense  of  Smell,  213;  Perfume  for  gods,  218;  Sacrifices,  219;  Human  sacrifices, 
222;  Druidic  sacrifices,  226;  Aztec  sacrifices,  227;  Incense,  228;  Perfume  for  humans, 
230;  Odophone,  Dr.  Piesse,  230;  Antiquity  of  cabarets,  232;  Perfumes,  forms  of,  233; 
Perfume  of  the  human  body,  236;  Perfuming  the  bride,  239;  Perfume  among  the 
ancients,  239;  Natural  odors  of  the  human  body,  242;  Sense  of  hearing,  248;  Sense 
of  taste,  249;  Kiss,  250;  Love  cake,  250;  Cannibalism,  251;  Sense  of  touch,  253; 
Sense  of  sight,  253;  Beauty,  255;  Long  hair,  256;  Elliptic  shape  of  women,  257; 
Bosom  of  woman,  259;  waist,  261;  Legs  and  feet,  262;  Dance,  263;  Religious  dances, 
266;  Social  dances,  267. 


CONTENTS  Xlll 

ABT  AND  ETHICS 

Influence  of  World's  Fairs,  269;  Egyptian  art,  271;  Greek  art,  271;  Nude  in 
art,  273;  In  churches,  277;  Nudity  for  baptism,  277;  Adam  and  Eve,  279;  Chiton,  281; 
Arena,  283;  Prostitute,  285;  Una,  286;  Idealization  in  art,  287;  Modem  decadence  of 
art,  288;  Indecency  in  art,  289;  Realism,  289;  Vulgarity  in  art,  290. 

SCULPTURE 

Sculpture,  292;  Decency,  294;  Indecency,  294;  Innocence  of  naked  childhood, 
297;  Modern  photography  of  the  nude,  298;  Pompeiian  bath-room  paintings,  302. 

ART  ANATOMY 

Rules  of  proportion  of  bodies,  303;  Heredity,  305;  Children,  308;  Women,  308; 
Men,  308;  Youths  and  Maidens,  309;  Plan  of  body  structure,  310;  Wedge  shape  of 
men,  312;  Elliptic  form  of  women,  313;  Feminine  beauty,  313. 

CREDULITY 

Magic,  315;  An  old  deer,  316;  Educated  mermaid,  316;  Patron  saint  of  Poland, 
316;  Multiple  births,  317;  Three  hundred  and  sixty- five  children  at  one  birth,  318; 
Agnosticism,  319;  Atheism,  320. 

LYCANTHROPY 

Lycanthropy,  321;  Witches,  322;  Diana  and  Actaeon,  323;  Daphne  and  Apollo, 
324. 

ORIGIN  OF  RELIGIOUS  IDEAS 

How  myths  travel,  327;  Unitarianism,  330;  Trinitarianism,  330;  What  are  the 
Gods?  331;  Ancient  ideas,  331;  Neo-Platonists,  333;  Pantheism,  333;  Pythagoreans, 
333;  Hesiod's  fable  of  hawk  and  nightingale,  335;  Homo  est  creator  dei,  337;  Religious 
intolerance  and  persecution,  337;  Burning  at  the  stake,  339. 

PRIMITIVE   BELIEFS 

Fear  of  Ghosts,  343 ;  Fetiches,  343 ;  African  fetich  place,  344 ;  Suttee  in  India, 
345;  Dragons,  346;  Asshur,  347;  Idols,  348;  Images,  348;  Aztec  idols,  350;  Teraphim, 
351;  Pan,  354;  Stones,  pillars,  steeples,  etc.,  355;  Dolmens,  Cromlechs,  etc.,  356; 
Animals  as  symbols  of  deities,  356;  Sivayites  or  Lingayats,  357;  Greek  statues  of 
deities,  357;  Ikons,  358;  Crucifix  or  cross,  358. 

SEXUAL  RELATIONSHIPS  OF  THE  GODS 

Daemones,  Greek,  360;  Demons,  modern,  360;  Exorcism,  361;  Philacteries  or 
charms,  361 ;  Pentagram,  361 ;  Were-wolves,  362 ;  Vampires,  362 ;  Incubi  and  Succubi, 
364;  Manichaeism,  364;  Simon  Magus,  365;  Witches'  Sabbath,  366;  Trial  of  Witches, 
366;  Fauns,  367;  Satyrs,  368;  Sileni,  368;  Nymphs,  368;  Naiads,  369;  Angels,  370; 
Genii,  370;  Valkyrs,  372;  Sirens,  373;  Sons  of  God,  373;  Incest  and  Rape.  374. 

THE   GODS   LIVED   LIKE   MEN 
Ammon,  375;  Wodan,  375;  Demeter,  375;  Proserpina,  376;  Lara,  376. 


xiv  CONTENTS 

MONOGAMY,  POLYGAMY 
Osiris  and  Isis,  376;  Juno,  377;  Zeus  or  Jupiter,  377. 


Unity  of  religions,  378;  Phallism,  379;  Creator,  the  father,  380;  Lingam,  382; 
Ancestor  worship,  382;  Phallus,  382;  Male  sexual  organs,  383;  Baal,  384;  Phallic 
pillars,  dolmens,  etc.,  385 ;  Asher,  Anu  and  Hoa,  386 ;  Male  symbols,  387 ;  male  triangle, 
387;  Lotus,  387;  Fleur-de-lis,  388;  Shamrock,  388;  Phallic  jewelry  and  medals,  389; 
Abraxas  medals,  390;  Salerno  trinity,  390;  Uas  sceptre,  393;  Pyramid,  393;  Triangle 
symbol  for  biblical  God,  395;  Medieval  trinity,  398;  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  Y.  W.  C.  A. 
triangles,  398;  Arrow,  399;  Thyrsus,  399;  Temptation  of  St.  Anthony,  401;  Sign  of 
the  Cross,  403;  Trinity,  404;  Phallic  signs  on  houses,  405;  Holy  families,  406;  Norns, 
406. 

PLANT  WOESHIP 

Christmas  tree,  408;  Maypole,  408;  Yule  log,  409;  Groves  (in  the  Bible),  411; 
Assyrian  tree  of  life,  413 ;  Alchemistic  tree  of  life,  415 ;  Witchhazel,  415 ;  Mistletoe, 
416;  Mandrake  roots,  417;  Love  charms,  417;  Plant  names,  422;  Romance  of  plant 
names,  422. 

ANIMAL  WOESHIP 

Turtle,  430;  Bull,  431;  Goats,  435;  Eagle,  436;  Owl,  436;  Vulture,  436;  Pea- 
cock, 437;  Doves,  437;  Cock,  437;  Lamb  (Agnus  Dei),  437;  Searabaeus  insect,  582. 

SOME  OF  THE  GODS 

Age  of  recorded  history,  439;  Ishtar's  trip  to  Hades,  440;  Phoenicia,  441;  Sun 
and  moon  worship,  442 ;  Persia,  443 ;  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman,  444 ;  Egypt,  445 ;  Osiris, 
Isis  and  Horus  or  Harpokrat,  446 ;  Osiris  mysteries,  448 ;  Greece,  449 ;  Old  Father 
Time,  450;  Zeus,  450;  Mars,  452;  Cupid  or  Amor,  453;  Dionysus,  454;  India,  456; 
Four  Great  Gods,  457;  Siva,  458;  Vishnu,  459;  China,  460;  Japan,  461;  Mexico,  461. 

THE  ETEENAL  FEMININE 

Mother  worship,  462 ;  Symbols  of  the  feminine,  463 ;  Vulva,  464 ;  Feminine 
triangle,  465;  Abracadabra,  466;  Sign  of  fertility,  467;  Ishtar,  468;  Cruelty  to 
women,  469 ;  Sistrum,  469 ;  Stonehenge,  471 ;  Arches,  471 ;  Shells,  472 ;  Adoration,  474 ; 
Vesic®  piscis,  475;  Door  of  life,  476;  Medals,  seals,  etc.,  476;  Symbol  of  vulva  on 
slate  roofs.  479;  Labial  caressing  of  woman,  479;  Festival  of  the  womb,  482;  Worship 
of  breast,  488;  Madonna  worship,  489;  Egg,  491;  Goddesses  of  maternity,  492;  Aztec 
Madonna,  493. 

VIEGIN  WOESHIP 

Parthenogenesis,  494;  Jupiter  and  Leda,  495;  Fornication,  496;  Gods  born  of 
women,  496;  Diana  of  Ephesus,  497;  Devaki  and  Krishna,  498;  Isis  as  a  virgin,  498; 
Earth  as  a  Madonna,  499;  Juno  as  Madonna,  501;  Queen  of  Heaven,  502;  Madonna 
and  St.  Bernhard  of  Clairvaux,  502;  Mound  builders'  Madonna,  503;  Religion  of  Hu- 
manity, 504;  Goddess  of  Reason,  505;  Worship  of  woman,  506. 


CONTENTS  XV 

ABOUT  GODDESSES 

Assyrian  and  Babylonian,  508;  Egypt,  509;  Greece,  510;  Venus  or  Aphrodite, 
510;  Three  Graces,  512;  Juno,  512;  Hebe,  513;  Diana  or  Artemis,  514;  Latona,  515; 
Flora,  516;  The  Fates,  517;  Immaculate  Conception,  518. 

MERE  MORTAL   WOMEN 

Story  of  Esther,  519;  King  Candaules,  519;  Conon  and  his  daughter,  520;  Cas- 
sandra, 520;  Leaena,  521;  Tamerlane  and  Bajazeth,  521;  Model  mother  of  China,  521. 

SEXUAL   UNION   AMONG   DEITIES 

David's  shield,  522;  Sign  of  the  Gnostics,  522;  Swastika,  523;  Irish  crosses, 
524;  Hands  in  blessing,  524;  Adam  and  Eve,  in  church  decoration,  525;  Ikons,  526; 
Iconoclasts,  526;  Crux  ansata,  527;  Hindu  holy  places,  528;  Wedding  ring,  symbol 
of  yoni,  530;  Finger  symbol  of  lingam,  530;  Suben,  goddess  of  maternity,  532;  Posey 
rings,  533. 

SERPENT   WORSHIP 

Peleus  and  Thetis,  534;  Apple  of  Discord,  535;  Aesculapius'  staff,  535;  Hygeia, 
535;  Serpent  mound,  537;  Zuni  snake  worship,  538;  Adam,  Eve  and  serpent,  539;  St. 
Patrick,  540;  Creation  of  Eve,  542;  Worship  of  Satan,  543. 

WORSHIP   OF  HEAVENLY  BODIES 

Sun  and  moon,  545 ;  Stars  and  planets,  545 ;  Sun  myths,  549 ;  Golden  fleece,  549 ; 
Mohammedan  crescent,  551 ;  Marriage  of  sun  and  moon,  552 ;  Hekate,  553 ;  Lunatic 
554 ;  Planets,  555 ;  Zodiacal  signs,  556. 

PHALLIC  FESTIVALS 

Sexual  life,  ancient  and  modern,  557;  Prostitution  in  Rome,  560;  Roman  festi- 
vals, 564;  Liberalia,  565;  Dionysia,  566;  Floralia,  568;  Lupercalia,  569;  Agrionia, 
570;  Bacchanalia,  570;  Phallic  festivals  in  India,  574. 

WATER 

Worship  of  rivers  and  river  gods,  575;  Styx,  576;  Nile,  576;  Ganges,  577;  Jordaa 
577 ;  Holy  water,  578 ;  Urine  as  holy  water,  Persia,  579 ;  Urine  as  a  remedy,  579. 

IS  THERE  AN  IMMORTAL  SOUL? 

Cicero 's  ideas,  580 ;  Kant  on  immortality,  581 ;  Plato 's  ideas,  581 ;  Materialistic 
view,  581;  Stoics,  584;  Zoroastrian  beliefs,  584;  Buddha's  teachings,  584;  Nirvana,  584; 
Pre-existence  of  souls,  586;  Seat  of  the  soul,  588;  Hades,  or  hell,  589;  Heaven  or 
paradise,  590;  Have  women  souls  f  591;  Devil,  592;  Valhalla,  592;  Hindu  immortality, 
593;  Myth  of  Ahasuerus,  594;  Conclusion,  595. 


SEX  AND  SEX  WORSHIP 

(PHALLIC  WORSHIP) 


SEX 

When  primitive  man  had  advanced  sufficiently  to  have  ac- 
quired the  rudiments  of  language  and  the  ability  to  think  logi- 
cally, he  probably  commenced  to  speculate  on  the  origin  or  source 
of  life  or  existence.  It  is  not  inconceivable  that  the  troglodites, 
living  in  their  caves,  depending  for  food  on  the  hunt  and  the  chase, 
slaying  wild  animals  in  self-defence,  others  for  game,  robbing 
birds'  nests  for  food,  and  using  all  animal  substances,  even  in- 
cluding the  dead  of  their  own  kind,  as  provender,  came  across 
some  eggs  just  as  they  were  being  hatched,  or  upon  some  wild 
animal  just  as  it  was  giving  birth  to  young;  and  generalizing 
from  such  observations,  which  corresponded  so  closely  with  what 
they  knew  to  be  the  facts  about  their  domestic  animals  and  about 
their  own  women  and  children,  they  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
all  things  were  produced  in  the  same  manner  as  was  the  case 
among  men  and  women  of  their  own  kind. 

To  civilized  man  only  man  seems  personal — a  real  conscious 
Ego — "Cogito,  ergo  sum!"  I  think,  therefore,  I  am. 

But  savages,  primitive  men,  conceive  every  object  as  living, 
as  being  personal,  endowed  with  passions  and  attributes  like  them- 
selves ;  even  the  most  abstract  phenomena  of  nature  are  regarded 
as  persons — sky,  earth,  wind,  fire,  etc. 

In  the  dim  ages  of  long  ago,  when  the  dawn  of  the  human 
reasoning  power  occurred,  the  distinctions  between  animal,  veg- 
etable and  inorganic  objects  were  unknown.  There  were  many 
transitional  forms  between  animals  and  plants  on  the  one  hand, 
while  the  fossils  and  petrifactions  furnished  equally  transitional 
forms  between  animals,  vegetables  and  minerals,  or  stones,  on 
the  other  hand. 

i 


2  SEX   A1STD   SEX   WORSHIP 

Mankind  in  its  childhood  imagined  all  things  to  be  alive  and 
to  have  sex  like  mankind  itself.  The  facts  of  sex  became  known 
from  experience ;  sex  was  the  great  mystery*  of  the  ancients,  and 
also  the  readiest  explanation  of  reproduction  and  of  life,  or  even 
of  existence  of  any  kind,  and  so  all  things,  animate  and  inanimate, 
were  supposed  to  be  sexual  and  to  produce  either  their  own  kind 
or  any  other  kind  of  being  by  processes  analogous  to  those  by 
which  human  offspring  was  produced. 

Even  the  soil  and  stones  were  supposed  to  produce  human 
beings,  and  the  ancient  Greeks  called  men  who  sprang  from  their 
soil  "autochthones." 

Our  negroes,  who  still  cultivate  many  features  of  voodoo 
worship,  consider  lodestones  to  be  powerful  love-charms  or  fe- 
tiches, and  know  how  to  distinguish  between  "male"  and  " fe- 
male" lodestones. 

And  primitive  men  extended  such  ideas  to  the  supernatural 
beings  with  whom  their  imagination  peopled  the  heavens  above 
them,  and  the  world  around  them  and  under  them,  and  to  many 
phenomena  of  nature,  as  sun,  moon  and  planets,  as  well  as  to  the 
gods  and  goddesses,  the  demons,  and  the  powers  of  the  infernal 
regions,  all  of  which  were  supposed  to  be  sexual. 

All  religions  are  based  on  sex;  some,  like  the  ancient  Egyp- 
tian, Greek  and  Eoman,  or  the  modern  Brahmanic  worship  of 
Siva,  very  coarsely  so,  according  to  modern  civilized  thought; 
others,  like  the  Christian  religion,  more  obscurely  so. 

Hence  it  will  prove  interesting  to  ascertain,  if  possible,  what 
sex  is  or  is  supposed  to  be,  and  what  it  was  supposed  to  be. 

We  will  first  give  a  Dictionary  definition,  as  a  sample  of 
what  such  definitions  usually  are : 

"Sex  (from  Latin  secus,  indecl. ;  from  seco,  cui,  ctum,  care,  1, 
v.a.,  to  cut;  to  cut  surgically,  to  cut  off  or  out,  to  amputate;  to  di- 
vide, cleave,  separate). 

Secus,  indecl.       ) 

..fa  sex,  male  or  iemale. 
Sexus,  us,  m.,  4  ) 

'  *  Sex :  1.  The  distinction  between  male  and  female ;  the  phys- 
ical difference  between  male  and  female ;  that  property  or  charac- 
ter by  which  an  animal  is  male  or  female. 

•For  this  cause  shall   a  man  leave  his   father  and   mother  and   shall  be  joined   unto   his  wife, 
and  they  two  shall  be  one  flesh.     This  is  a  great  mystery. — Eph.    v,   31,   32. 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  6 

"Sexual  distinctions  are  derived  from  the  presence  and  de- 
velopment of  the  characteristic  generative  organs  of  the  male  and 
female  respectively. 

"  2.  Womankind,  by  way  of  emphasis  (generally  preceded  by 
the  definite  article  the), 

"A  tact  which  surpassed  the  tact  of  her  sex,  as 
much  as  the  tact  of  her  sex  surpasses  the  tact  of 
ours."  — Macaulay,  Hist,  of  Engl.,  Ch.  xi. 

"3.  One  of  the  two  divisions  of  animals  founded  on  the  dis- 
tinction between  male  and  female." 

Originally,  in  Latin,  either  the  word  secus  or  sexus  was  used ; 
while  secus  was  more  common  in  the  Avorks  of  the  earlier  writers, 
the  word  sexus  became  more  and  more  common  in  later  times, 
after  the  beginning  of  our  era,  until  it  finally  replaced  the  word 
secus  altogether. 

An  explanation  of  the  derivation  of  the  word  secus  (sexus) 
from  the  verb  seco  must  probably  be  sought  in  the  older  religions 
with  which  the  Romans  were  acquainted. 

Heaven  and  Earth  (the  deities  Uranus  and  Gea)  were  sup- 
posed to  have  been  at  first  permanently  united,  either  in  an  un- 
ending sexual  embrace  or  as  an  hermaphrodite  deity.  The  same 
idea  was  found  in  many  mythologies,  in  most  of  which  the  two 
principles  (Uranus,  male,  and  Gea,  female)  were  supposed  to 
have  been  separated  later  on  by  cutting  apart  (hence  seco,  to  am- 
putate, to  separate). 

The  heaven  here  mentioned  must  not  be  confounded  with 
the  heaven  of  the  Christian  religion  which  is  an  idea  that  the 
ancients  did  not  know;  the  heaven  of  the  ancients  was  simply  the 
upper  atmosphere,  the  region  of  the  clouds,  or  above  the  clouds, 
which  seemed  to  them  to  encompass  the  earth  on  all  sides,  the 
earth  being  beneath. 

Lucretius  said:  "Lastly,  you  may  say,  perhaps,  the  showers 
of  rain  perish,  when  Father  Aether  has  poured  them  down  into 
the  lap  of  Mother  Earth.  But  it  is  not  so;  for  hence  the  smiling 
fruits  arise,  and  the  branches  become  verdant  on  the  trees." 

This  posture  of  the  male  above  and  the  female  below,  is  usual 
during  sexual  congress  among  animals,  and  in  the  Brahmanic 
writings  it  is  taught  that  men  and  women  should  cohabit  in  the 


4  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

same  posture,  as  to  do  so  in  any  other  posture,  or  at  any  time 
except  at  night,  is  sin. 

Heaven  and  Earth,  then,  were  endowed  with  human  parts 
and  human  passions ;  they  begat  the  gods  in  Greek,  Vedic,  Hindu, 
Chinese,  Polynesian  and  New  Zealand  mythologies  (although  des- 
ignated, of  course,  by  different  names  in  the  different  languages). 

In  these  religions  they  were  at  first  united,  but  later  on  sepa- 
rated. The  sky  was  also  a  god,  personal  and  sexual,  among  the 
Samoyeds,  the  North  American  Indians  (Amerinds)  and  the  Zu- 
lus, though  not  hermaphrodite  by  union  with  Earth. 

Uranus  (Coelum,  Sky)  was  supposed  to  be  male  and  to  be 
covering  Gea  (Earth,  Terra)  in  one  unending  sexual  embrace; 
Gea  was  female. 

In  Polynesian,  New  Zealand,  Chinese,  Vedic  and  Greek  myths. 
Heaven  (Sky)  and  Gea  (Earth,  Nature)  constituted  a  hermaphro- 
dite being;  their  union  was  perpetual.  Only  later  on  were  they 
considered  as  a  pair,  separated  from  each  other,  and  each  one 
uni-sexual. 

The  Maories,  natives  of  New  Zealand,  told  the  story  as  fol- 
lows: The  god  Rangi  (Sky)  was  a  male  person  who  was  insep- 
arably united  in  a  continuous  union  with  his  wife  Papa,  and  thus 
they  begat  the  gods  and  all  other  things;  the  couple  were  after- 
wards torn  apart  or  separated  by  their  children  (the  other  gods). 

It  does  not  appear  distinctly  that  there  was  any  idea  of  anal- 
ogy to  vaginismus  in  any  of  these  mythologies  to  explain  the 
perpetual  or  prolonged  union;  the  condition  of  vaginismus,  as 
frequently  seen  in  the  copulation  of  dogs,  for  instance,  and  as  oc- 
casionally, although  rarely,  occurring  during  coition  of  humans, 
may  have  been  known,  and  may  perhaps  be  implied  in  the  above 
story  of  Rangi  and  Papa,  who  were  ''torn  apart;"  but  in  most 
of  the  stories  of  this  kind  the  separation  of  a  hermaphrodite  be- 
ing into  its  two  separate  natures  is  distinctly  stated. 

Of  course,  sex  was  distinctly  apparent  in  the  higher  animals 
and  mankind,  but  the  ideas  as  to  the  sexual  process  were  vague 
and  wholly  unscientific.  In  fact,  the  earliest  references  in  the 
oldest  mythologies  did  not  always  assume  two  complementary 
principles  or  agencies  (sometimes  spoken  of  as  "antagonistic 
principles"),  but  seem  to  have  taught  that  the  Creator  was  of 
hermaphrodite  nature. 

In  imitation  of  these  ancient  theories  that  the  Creator  was 


SEX    AXD    SEX    WORSHIP  5 

androgynous  or  hermaphrodite,  and  no  doubt  derived  from  the 
same  folk-lore,  some  philosophers  held  the  same  view  in  regard 
to  Yahwe  (Jehovah  or  Elohim),  the  god  or  the  Demiurge  of  the 
Old  Testament.  We  read  in  the  twenty-seventh  verse  of  the  first 
chapter  of  Genesis:  "So  God  created  man  in  his  own  image;  male 
and  female  created  He  them"  (in  his  own  image;  male  and  fe- 
male created  He  them).  And  this  is  emphasized  by  repetition 
in  the  more  explicit  statement  in  verses  1  and  2,  chap,  v,  of  Gen- 
esis: "In  the  day  that  God  created  man,  in  the  likeness  of  God 
made  he  them;  and  God  blessed  them,  and  called  their  name 
Adam." 

The  Talmud  (Hebrew  Traditions)  says  that  Adam  was  cre- 
ated androgynous.  His  head  reached  the  clouds.  God  caused 
a  sleep  to  fall  on  him,  and  God  took  something  away  from  all 
his  members,  (seco,  to  cut  off — the  same  idea)  and  these  parts 
he  fashioned  into  ordinary  men  and  women  and  scattered  them 
throughout  the  world.  After  Lilith  (Adam's  first  wife,  a  mother 
of  demons  and  giants)  deserted  Adam,  God  separated  Adam  into 
his  two  sexual  parts:  he  took  one  of  Adam's  ribs  and  made  Eve 
from  it.  Philo,  a  Jewish  philosopher  contemporaneous  with 
Jesus,  said  that  Adam  was  a  double,  androgynous  or  hermaphro- 
dite being  "in  the  likeness  of  God." 

Philo  said  that  "God  separated  Adam  into  his  two  sexual 
component  parts,  one  male,  the  other  female — Eve — taken  from 
his  side.  The  longing  for  reunion  which  love  inspired  in  the 
divided  halves  of  the  originally  dual  being,  is  the  source  of  the 
sexual  pleasure,  which  is  the  beginning  of  all  transgressions." 
The  Targum  of  Jonathan  relates  that  Eve  was  made  from  the 
thirteenth  rib  of  Adam's  right  side;  even  modern  theologists 
have  held  that  Adam  had  one  more  rib  than  his  descendants. 

Plato,  a  Greek  philosopher,  explained  the  amatory  instincts 
and  inclinations  of  men  and  women  by  the  assertion  that  human 
beings  were  at  first  androgynous ;  Zeus  separated  them  into  uni- 
sexual halves,  and  they  seek  to  become  reunited. 

The  Hindus  explain  the  creation  of  the  different  animals  in 
this  way:  Punish  a  was  alone  in  the  world,  and  very  lonesome. 
He  therefore  divided  himself  into  two  beings,  man  and  wife;  the 
wife  regarded  union  with  him  to  be  incestuous,  on  account  of 
their  former  close  relationship,  and  fled  from  his  amorous  ad- 
vances and  embraces,  and  to  elude  him  changed  herself  to  vari- 


6  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

ous  forms ;  but  Purusha  assumed  the  same  shapes  as  his  wife 
and  in  these  forms  succeeded  in  his  pursuit,  and  begat  with  her 
the  various  animals,  of  the  shapes  that  his  wife  had  assumed. 

In  the  writings  of  Plesiod  (the  old  Greek  Bible)  occurs  the 
story  of  how  Cronus  (the  Latin  god  Saturn)  separated  Heaven 
and  Earth  with  a  sickle,  by  cutting  off  the  sexual  organs  of  his 
father  Uranus. 

In  one  of  the  compartments  of  the  hewn  cave  temples  of 
Elephanta,  near  Bombay,  there  are  a  great  many  figures  of  an- 
cient workmanship,  representing  Siva  with  his  Sakti  or  wife. 
Parvati,  as  one  being  of  an  hermaphrodite  nature.  One  of  these 
figures  is  about  16  feet  high,  having  both  male  and  female  parts, 
or  being  half  male,  half  female.  The  androgynous  form  of  Siva 
and  Parvati,  before  separation,  was  called  Viraj. 

The  idea  that  originally  gods  and  men  were  hermaphrodite, 
and  had  to  be  separated  into  uni-sexual  beings,  accounts  for  the 
word  ''sex,"  derived  from  secus,  and  this  in  turn  from  the  word 
seco,  to  amputate,  to  cut  apart. 

MODERN  RELIGIONS 

Most  people  have  developed,  either  through  the  imagina- 
tion of  one  or  a  few  dreamers  and  poets,  or  through  the  cumula- 
tive efforts  of  many,  some  theory  of  the  formation  of  the  world, 
and  of  the  gods  that  govern  this  world.  The  explanations  in 
regard  to  the  formation  of  the  world  are  spoken  of  as  "cosmog- 
onies," while  the  beliefs  in  regard  to  supernatural  or  non-human 
beings  (gods,  goddesses,  demons,  devils,  etc.)  are  called  "myth- 
ologies;" or,  if  a  religious  worship  of  any  kind  is  inculcated  in 
connection  therewith,  they  are  called  "religions."  There  is  a 
difference,  however,  between  mythology  and  religion;  only  those 
gods  or  goddesses,  or  other  supernatural  beings  who  are  actu- 
ally worshipped,  have  a  religious  significance.  All  those  about 
whom  the  fables  are  told,  but  who  are  not  worshipped  or  pro- 
pitiated with  sacrifices,  belong  merely  to  mythology. 

A  religion  is  the  form  or  embodiment  which  the  devotion  of 
a  religious  mind  assumes  towards  God;  it  consists  of  certain 
rites  or  ceremonials  practiced  in  the  worship  of  God.  Cicero  de- 
fined religion  to  be  reverence  for  the  gods,  the  fear  of  God  con- 
nected with  a  careful  pondering  of  divine  things,  piety,  religion. 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  7 

A  "true  religion"  is  the  religion  adhered  to  by  the  individ- 
ual believer,  while  all  other  religions  are  usually  regarded  and 
referred  to  as  "false  religions;"  or  to  use  a  familiar  saying— 
"orthodoxy  is  my  doxy,  heterodoxy  or  unorthodoxy  is  the  other 
fellow's  doxy."  This,  at  least,  has  always  been  the  mental  atti- 
tude of  religious  persons. 

The  source  or  origin  of  religions  must  be  sought  in  the  rec- 
ords of  earlier  times  when  they  were  first  proclaimed.  What 
primitive  men  believed  from  the  time  of  the  appearance  of  the 
Alalus  (speechless  ancestor)  to  the  time  when  the  dawn  of  au- 
thentic history  occurred,  we  do  not  know;  there  is  an  impenetra- 
ble curtain  drawn  over  the  untold  ages,  variously  estimated  by 
scientists  from  a  few  tens  of  thousands  of  years,  to  a  million 
years  or  more,  during  which  time  man  existed  but  was  unable  to 
leave  us  any  records  of  his  existence  except  such  as  we  may  trace 
in  the  stone  implements,  kitchen  middens,  dolmens,  or  fossils, 
etc.,  that  we  may  find. 

We  have  no  reason  to  assume  that  primitive  man  had  any 
religion,  or  that  he  bothered  his  mind  with  speculations  about 
abstruse  mental  problems.  It  seems  more  reasonable  to  believe 
that  the  sentiment  of  religion  is  a  comparatively  late  acquire- 
ment on  the  part  of  mankind,  possibly  not  older  than  10,000  or 
25,000  years,  a  mere  trifle  in  comparison  with  the  ages  during 
which  he  probably  existed.  It  is  not  our  object  here  to  attempt 
the  description  of  the  evolution  of  religions.  Did  they  develop 
one  from  another!  It  seems  to  a  certain  extent  this  was  the 
case,  but  we  want  only  to  study  the  religions  with  regard  to 
sex, — to  find  the  bearing  religion  has  to  sex,  or  vice  versa,  that 
sex  has  to  religion.  A  part  of  our  inquiry  is  to  see  what  is 
meant  by  "Sex-Worship." 

We  are  struck  by  one  peculiarity  at  a  very  early  stage  of 
our  research.  Most  Aryan  nations  speak  of  their  supreme  God 
as  "Father:"  thus  at  once  proclaiming  sex  as  an  important  fea- 
ture of  religion. 

The  leading  religions  of  the  world  are  based  in  great  part  at 
least  on  ancient  "sacred  writings,"  the  authors  of  which  were 
supposed  to  have  been  the  gods  of  the  respective  religions  them- 
selves; or  the  gods  are  supposed  to  have  inspired  certain  writers, 
or  to  have  dictated  to  them  the  contents  of  their  writings.  These 


8  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

writings  are  called  "The  Word  of  God"  by  the  adherents  of  the 
several  religions. 

The  Books,  or  collections  of  books,  are  also  called  "Bibles" 
(from  the  Greek  word  ~byblon  or  its  plural  byblia,  meaning 
"books") ;  thus,  the  writings  of  Hesiod  and  Homer  constitute  the 
Bible  of  the  ancient  Greeks;  the  Kig-Vedas  are  the  Bible  of  the 
Hindus;  the  writings  of  Moses  and  the  prophets  are  the  Bible 
of  the  Jews,  and  the  latter,  together  with  the  modern  writings  of 
some  Greeks  and  Jews,  called  the  New  Testament,  form  the  Bible 
of  the  Christians. 

It  is  probable  that  the  evolution  of  the  human  race  from  its 
pre-human  ancestors  took  place  somewhere  in  Asia.  But  it  is 
not  necessary  here  to  make  any  dogmatic  assertions  of  any  kind 
regarding  this' subject,  because  there  are  scientists  who  believe 
that  the  human  race  may  have  originated  in  America,  and  others 
who  believe  that  it  originated,  when  the  time  was  ripe  for  this 
evolution,  in  several  centers  at  once,  from  where  they  overspread 
the  earth. 

Whatever  we  may  individually  believe  regarding  this,  sci- 
entists probably  all  agree  that  the  first  traces  of  inscriptions  or 
written  records,  occurred  in  the  region  about  the  Eastern  end  of 
the  Mediterranean  Sea,  in  Asia  Minor,  in  Assyria,  Babylon  or 
Egypt,  or  even  in  India.  The  majority  of  writers,  I  think,  agree 
that  this  was  the  region  of  the  first  home  of  early  mankind. 

The  Rig-Vedas  are  the  Hindu  sacred  writings  which  are  prob- 
ably the  oldest  literary  compositions  in  the  world.  They  are 
supposed  to  have  been  composed  between  5000  and  2000  B.C.  ; 
they  were  transmitted  orally  until  they  were  reduced  to  Avriting 
about  600  B.C.,  although  some  authorities  say  they  were  not 
written  earlier  than  about  1000  A.D.  The  Vedas  teach  a  belief 
in  one  Supreme  God,  under  the  name  of  Brahma.  His  attributes 
are  represented  by  the  three  personified  powers  of  Creation, 
Preservation  and  Destruction,  which  under  the  respective  names 
of  Brahma,  Vishnu  and  Siva,  form  the  Trimurti,  or  Hindu  Trin- 
ity, represented  as  one  human  bod}7  with  three  heads,  or  with 
one  head  but  with  three  faces.  (Fig.  1.) 

At  Elephanta,  an  island  near  Bombay,  is  a  temple  grotto 
carved  into  a  solid  cliff.  It  contains  many  figures  of  Hindu  dei- 
ties, but  many  of  those,  especially  those  with  phallic  or  yonic 
attributes,  were  defaced  or  mutilated  by  the  fanatical  zeal  of 


SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


9 


early  Portuguese  missionaries,  or  the  even  more  fanatical  Mo- 
hammedans. In  the  center  of  this  temple  is  a  bust  of  the  Hindu 
Trimurti,  six  feet  high. 

In  more  recent  times  Indra,  the  God  of  the  Sky  (Fig.  2),  is 
also  much  worshipped  in  India,  as  well  as  Agni,  the  God  of  Fire. 
Modern  Brahmanism  is  nature  worship,  and  the  Rig-Vedas  con- 
tain directions  for  sacrificial  ceremonies  and  hymns  of  praise. 
When  they  were  reduced  to  writing,  several  variant  versions 
which  had  arisen  through  unavoidable  inaccuracies  in  oral  trans- 
missions were  united  into  one  collection,  Avithout  critical  editing, 
and  some  writings,  evidently  not  part  of  the  original  collection. 


Fig.  1.— The  Trimurti.  Tho  Hindu  Fig.  2.— Indra.  the  God  of  the  Sky;  ;i 
Trinity — Brahma,  creator ;  Vishnu,  preser-  Hindu  god  corresponding  to  the  (Ireek 
ver;  and  Siva,  destroyer.  god  Zeus. 

wore  included.  In  Hindu  mythology  the  gods  are  represented 
with  four,  six  or  more  arms,  which  is  simply  a  conventional  sym- 
bolical mode  of  indicating  their  superior  power,  similar  to  the 
"hundred-banders"  of  the  early  Greeks. 

The  evolution  of  the  (Jewish  and)  Christian  Bible  was  sim- 
ilar to  that  of  the  Rig-Vedas.  It  is  a  collection  of  sixty-six  pam- 
phlets, written  in  several  different  languages,  by  about  forty 
different  authors.  Its  composition  took  about  sixteen  hundred 
years,  from  the  first  to  the  last  book. 

Instead  of  being  a  book  written  by  God  in  Heaven,  it  is  a 


10  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

literary  collection  containing  history,  law,  biography,  hymns, 
oratory,  proverbs,  visions,  dreams,  epigrams,  and  even  erotic 
love  stories ;  and  one  of  these,  Esther,  seems  to  be  a  Persian  pro- 
duction. The  authors  of  some  of  the  books  are  unknown,  but 
some  of  the  books  bear  unmistakable  internal  evidence  of  having 
been  compiled  from  still  older  sources,  now  lost. 

Some  of  the  stories  in  the  Bible,  such  as  that  of  the  flood,  of 
the  sun  standing  still  to  accommodate  a  human  hero,  of  changing 
humans  to  pillars  of  (stone  or)  salt  for  their  curiosity,  have  been 
found  in  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  inscriptions  and  Brahmanic 
writings  in  practically  the  same  form  as  they  are  in  the  Bible, 
while  the  Assyrian  inscriptions  are  probably  a  full  thousand  years 
older  than  the  books  of  the  Bible  containing  these  same  stories. 

The  older  parts  of  the  Bible  were  transmitted  orally  for  many 
centuries,  before  they  were  reduced  to  writing;  and  when  the 
earliest  writing  occurred,  it  was  imperfect  and  primitive.  Only 
consonants  were  in  use ;  the  words  were  not  separated  by  spaces, 
nor  was  there  a  division  into  sentences  or  verses.  For  instance, 
if  we  were  to  write  the  twenty- seventh  verse  of  the  first  chapter 
of  Genesis  in  the  manner  in  which  the  ancient  Bible  was  written, 
it  would  look  something  like  this : 

SGDCRTDMNNHSNMGNTHMGFGD 
CRTDHHMMLNDFMLCRTDHTHM. 

(So  God  created  man  in  his  own  image;  in  his  own  im- 
age created  he  him;  male  and  female  created  he  them.) 

The  cantors  or  recitors  in  the  Jewish  synagogues,  to  facili- 
tate reading  of  the  scriptures,  invented  signs  for  "breathing," 
now  called  vowel  points,  but  these  were  not  part  of  the  text  in  the 
ancient  scrolls,  in  fact,  they  were  not  introduced  until  600  A.D., 
and  in  this  form  the  writings  were  transmitted  for  further  cen- 
turies. 

Bibliolatry  is  a  superstitious  worship  of  the  Bible,  based  on 
a  claim  that  every  word  in  the  book  is  a  direct  revelation  from 
God;  yet  the  Bible  contains  three  different  accounts  of  the  crea- 
tion of  the  world;  it  contains  theology  or  speculations  on  the  na- 
ture of  God;  eschatology,  or  speculations  on  a  future  life;  reli- 
gion, or  rules  and  rites  for  the  proper  worship  of  God,  et  cetera. 
Many  of  these  subjects  were  also  discussed  by  the  philosophers 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  11 

among  the  Greeks,  Chaldeans,  Hindus  and  other  nations  of  those 
early  days,  and  some  of  these  so-called  Pagan  views  resembled 
very  closely  the  Biblical  views. 

The  Bible  consists  of  two  parts;  the  Old  Testament  or  the 
Bible  of  the  ancient  Jews,  and  the  New  Testament,  the  sacred 
writings  of  the  Christians.  The  Bible  of  the  Christians  contains 
both  Testaments.  The  first  part  teaches  that  there  is  one  God— 
Jehovah ;  the  second  part  teaches  views  which  led  to  a  belief  in  a 
Trinity. 

The  Old  Testament  does  not  teach  that  Jehovah  was  a  god  of 
the  universe,  but  that  he  was  a  tribal  god,  the  God  of  Israel,  or 
the  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob.  The  other  tribes  had  their 
own  gods.  Ruth  said  to  Naomi:  "Whither  thou  goest,  I  will  go; 
and  where  thou  lodgest,  I  will  lodge ;  thy  people  shall  be  my  peo- 
ple, and  thy  God  my  God."  (Ruth  i,  16.) 

The  Jews,  when  they  went  out  of  Egypt,  were  a  crude  and 
uncivilized  nation  of  ex-slaves,  and  during  their  sojourn  in  Egypt 
they  naturally  adopted  some  of  the  ideas  of  their  masters.  During 
their  travels  in  the  wilderness  they  reverted  to  these  beliefs,  and 
erected  an  Apis  bull — a  golden  calf.  The  Hebrews  were  probably 
too  ignorant  to  have  understood  abstruse  speculations  on  mono- 
theism, so  Moses  simply  established  a  theocracy,  or  an  absolute 
monarchy  with  a  god  as  the  ruler,  for  which  god  he  himself  was 
the  mouthpiece;  he  pretended  to  be  on  intimate  speaking  terms 
with  this  god,  and  he  transmitted  the  commands  of  this  god  to 
the  people.  He  made  the  people  believe  that  they  were  the  "cho- 
sen people  of  God,"  and  this  belief  still  prevails. 

There  are  certain  passages  in  the  Bible  which  seem  to  imply 
that  there  may  have  been  other  gods  besides  Yahwe,  the  "God 
of  Israel;"  as  for  instance  when  this  Jewish  God  wished  to  create 
man,  he  is  represented  as  talking  to  some  other  supernatural  be- 
ings, possibly  other  gods,  as  in  Gen.  i,  26:  "And  God  said.  Let  us 
make  man  in  our  image,  after  our  likeness;"  Gen.  iii,  22:  "And 
the  Lord  God  said,  Behold,  the  man  is  become  as  one  of  us;"  or 
Gen.  iii,  5:  "And  God  doth  know,  that  in  the  day  ye  eat  thereof, 
then  your  eyes  shall  be  opened;  and  ye  shall  be  as  gods." 

The  books  of  the  Old  Testament  were  transmitted  orally,  as 
just  explained,  for  about  a  thousand  years  or  more ;  then  they  were 
reduced  to  writings,  but  the  letters  simply  served  as  mnemonic 
signs  for  the  recitation  in  the  synagogues,  which  was  practically 


12  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

from  memory.  The  books  of  the  New  Testament  were  written 
when  writing  was  a  quite  common  accomplishment,  and  they  are 
therefore  in  a  more  perfect  state  of  preservation. 

Christianity  is  based  on  the  Jewish  Bible,  of  which  it  claims 
to  be  the  fulfilment  and  the  object  of  its  prophecies.  Christianity 
asserts  that  the  New  Testament  contains  the  fulfilment  of  the  Old 
Testament  and  that  the  two  Bibles  therefore  really  constitute  one 
completed  work. 

As  recent  researches  have  shown  that  the  Old  Testament  is 
largely  derived  from  the  same  sources  as  the  Assyrian,  Babylo- 
nian, Chaldean  and  Egyptian  religions,  it  should  not  surprise  us 
to  find  traces  of  these  religions  and  of  their  symbolism  in  Chris- 
tianity, as  will  appear  farther  on  in  this  book. 

The  ancients  themselves  seem  to  have  been  well  aware  of 
the  similarity  of  their  myths  or  theories  to  those  of  other  neigh- 
boring people ;  and  this  led  to  accusations  of  plagiarism  or  copy- 
ing one  from  another. 

Lucian,  a  Greek  writer,  quoted  the  story  of  the  flood  in  the 
writings  of  Moses,  in  support  of  a  charge  of  plagiarism  against 
the  Jewish  writers ;  and  likewise  Celsus  says  that  the  authors  of 
the  "Books  of  Moses"  had  simply  paraphrased  the  Greek  story 
of  Deucalion  and  Pyrrha.  And  we  now,  after  the  lapse  of  so  many 
centuries,  are  in  a  position  to  judge  fairly  in  regard  to  these  crim- 
inations and  recriminations  of  plagiarism,  because  we  now  have 
the  proof  that  both  Jewish  and  Greek  writers  got  their  material 
from  the  folklore  common  to  all  Asia  Minor,  and  especially  to 
Assyrian,  Babylonian  and  Chaldean  writings. 

Much  of  what  is  now  currently  believed  by  Christians,  the 
churches  as  well  as  the  masses,  consists  of  elements  derived  from 
folklore,  the  speculative  or  dogmatic  writings  of  the  church- 
fathers,  and  from  poetical  works,  such  as  Virgil,  Milton's  Para- 
dise Lost,  Dante's  Divine  Comedy,  etc.;  or  of  beliefs  and  practices 
derived  from  other,  so-called  Pagan,  religions,  especially  from 
the  teachings  of  Zoroaster,  from  Manichaeism  and  Gnosticism, 
and  from  Buddhism. 

The  various  councils  of  the  church  have  modified  and  ampli- 
fied the  earlier  teachings ;  thus,  the  Council  of  Nice,  in  the  year 
325  A.D.,  affirmed  the  Divinity  of  Jesus,  and  the  Council  of  Con- 
stantinople in  381  A.D.,  declared  the  Divinity  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  13 

thus  completing  the  Trinity  which  is  believed  in  by  most  sects  of 
the  Christian  faith ;  practically  by  all  but  the  Unitarians. 

Protestants  who  believe  in  the  theory  of  the  Trinity  seem  to 
forget  that  this  doctrine  rests  on  the  same  kind  of  human  authority 
as  that  which  more  recently  declared  the  Immaculate  Conception 
of  Mary  and  the  Infallibility  of  the  Pope  to  be  articles  of  faith. 

The  Koran  (Qu'ran)  contains  the  teachings  of  Mohammed, 
who  commenced  his  career  as  prophet  about  the  year  610  after 
Christ.  His  teachings  show  the  influence  of  the  Jewish  and  early 
Christian  views  with  which  he  had  come  into  contact ;  but  Moham- 
med claimed  that  Allah  (God)  had  sent  his  angel  Gabriel  to  dic- 
tate to  him  the  contents  of  the  Koran.  Mohammedan  believers 
call  the  Koran  the  "Word  of  God." 

Mohammed  could  not  read  or  write,  but  some  of  his  followers 
wrote  down  his  sayings  on  any  available  material  at  hand  at  the 
time — leather,  palm-leaves,  stones,  and  even  on  the  shoulder- 
blades  of  the  bleached  skeletons  of  sheep;  these  sayings  were 
afterwards  gathered,  without  any  great  effort  at  editing  or  ar- 
ranging, either  chronologically  or  according  to  sense ;  like  the  Old 
Testament,  the  Koran  was  originally  written  in  consonants  only. 

The  Koran  contains  a  peculiar  mixture  of  more  or  less  unre- 
lated materials,  such  as  moral,  religious,  civil  and  political  teach- 
ings, magical  formulas,  promises  of  future  rewards  for  true  be- 
lievers and  threats  of  future  punishments  for  unbelievers. 

The  Mohammedan  Paradise  is  peopled  with  "houries"  or 
celestial  nymphs,  sexual  pleasure  with  whom  will  form  the  chief 
happiness  of  pious  believers  hereafter. 

The  three  books,  the  Rig-Vedas,  the  Bible  and  the  Koran,  are 
the  bases  of  the  Brahmanic,  Jewish,  Christian  and  Mohammedan 
religions  respectively;  these  are  the  main  religions  of  the  world. 
They  are  really  religions,  that  is,  they  teach  rites  and  ceremonials 
to  be  practiced  in  the  worship  of  God;  they  are  systems  of  doc- 
trine and  worship  imagined  by  their  adherents  to  be  of  Divine 
origin.  They  promise  a  life  of  happiness  hereafter  to  the  faith- 
ful believers  and  a  life  of  eternal  punishment  to  the  unbelievers. 

They  have  many  features  in  common  which  they  appear  to 
have  borrowed  from  each  other,  or  probably,  drew  from  a  com- 
mon source,  a  sort  of  folklore  which  had  been  built  up  by  oral 
transmission  in  Southern  and  Southwestern  Asia  and  Northeast- 
ern Africa,  during  the  untold  ages  which  had  passed  from  the 


14  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

time  of  the  dawn  of  thinking  among  primitive  men  to  the  first 
traces  of  authentic  or  recorded  history. 

These  religions  are  the  leading  faiths  of  the  world,  and  their 
adherents  are  numbered  as  follows: 

Christians,  564,510,000 

Hindus,  210,540,000 

Mohammedans,  221,825,000 

Jews,  13,052,846 

The  Christians  are  divided  in  turn  into 

Eoman  Catholics,  272,860,000 

Greek  Catholics,  120,000,000 

Protestants,  171,650,000 

But  it  does  not  follow  that  all  who  are  included  in  such  a 
classification  are  "true  believers." 

OTHER  BELIEFS 

Not  all  beliefs  in  regard  to  Supernatural  Beings,  nor  all 
mythological  accounts  of  the  creation  of  the  world,  or  the  creation 
of  man,  can  properly  be  called  l '  religions. ' '  A  religion  inculcates 
a  worship  of  a  god  or  gods,  and  without  such  worship,  whether  by 
ceremonials,  prayers,  hymns  of  praise,  sacrifices,  or  in  any  other 
manner,  a  belief  is  not  a  religion. 

There  are  in  Asia  a  number  of  important  beliefs  which  are 
usually  considered  to  be  religions,  although  they  are  not  really 
such.  We  will  consider  a  few  of  these,  under  the  names  of  Con- 
fucianism, Taoism,  Shintoism,  and  Buddhism. 

The  illustration  (Fig.  3)  represents  the  Japanese  "Mode  of 
Life;"  it  is  represented  in  very  many  variants,  usually  in  the 
forms  of  small  sculptures,  more  rarely  as  paintings  or  as  papier 
mache  figures.  The  group  signifies:  "Hear  no  evil!  Speak  no 
evil !  See  no  evil ! ' ' 

In  Japan  the  prevailing  beliefs  are  Shintoism  and  Buddhism, 
or  perhaps  more  frequently  a  mixture  of  the  two ;  Shintoism, 
called  "The  Path  of  the  Gods,"  is  so  nearly  like  Taoism  that  it 
seems  probable  that  it  was  derived  from  the  latter.  Before  the 
introduction  of  Buddhism  into  Japan,  Shintoism  was  the  only 
faith.  Shintoism  inculcates  no  worship  of  God  and  has  no  moral 


SEX    A1STD   SEX    WORSHIP 


15 


code  of  behavior,  because,  as  one  of  the  writers  of  Japan  observed, 
4 'every  Japanese  knows  how  to  properly  conduct  himself,  by  sim- 
ply obeying  the  behests  of  the  Mikado." 

Matoori,  who  lived  from  1730  to  1801,  said  that  the  will  of 


Fig.  3.— The  Japanese  "Mode  of  Life.' 


Fig.  4. — "Buddha  Preaching,"  discovered  at  Sarnath,  India,  in  1904. 

the  Mikado  is  the  certain  guide  to  a  knowledge  of  good  and  evil. 
Shintoism  teaches  that  the  Mikado  is  the  direct  descendant  of  the 
sungoddess,  therefore  a  representative  of  this  deity.  Shintoism 
also  includes  elements  of  hero-worship,  especially  of  the  ances- 
tors of  the  Mikado;  in  addition,  the  Japanese  believe  that  the 


1()  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

powers  of  nature  are  spiritual  agencies,  constituting,  as  it  were, 
a  group  of  inferior  deities. 

Taoism  is  founded  on  the  teachings  of  Lao-Tze,  who  lived 
about  500  B.C.  ;  he  was  begotten  in  a  supernatural  manner,  and  his 
mother  carried  him  in  her  womb  for  eighty-two  years,  which  time 
he  devoted  to  introspective  meditations,  and  to  the  elaboration  of 
his  theory  of  life.  Some  Chinese  historians  vary  the  story  by 
ascribing  different  lengths  of  time  to  this  miraculous  pregnancy, 
so  that  an  uncertainty  prevails  regarding  this  matter,  varying 
from  61  to  82  years.  To  us,  for  the  purpose  of  our  study,  it  makes 
little  difference  which  period  is  assumed  as  the  correct  one. 

Taoism,  or  the  teachings  of  Lao-Tze,  also  called  the  Chinese 
' '  Way  of  Life, ' '  is  not  really  a  religion,  for  it  teaches  no  ritual  for 
the  worship  of  a  god,  nor  even,  that  there  is  any  god;  the  word 
"tao"  means  "a  way,"  and  Taoism  teaches  the  way  to  live- 
essentially,  to  practice  virtue  and  to  follow  the  teachings  of  the 
Golden  Rule. 

In  addition,  the  Chinese,  as  well  as  the  Japanese,  worship 
the  manes  or  shades  (ghosts)  of  their  ancestors. 

Chung-Fu-Tze,  called  Confucius  in  western  countries,  lived 
about  the  same  time  as  Lao-Tze,  the  two  having  been  personally 
acquainted  with  each  other,  according  to  some  historians.  Both 
taught  practically  the  same  tenets.  Neither  taught  anything  about 
a  god,  or  a  future  life,  but  Confucius  formulated  a  version  of  the 
Golden  Eule  or  "Rule  of  Life"  which  varies  from  the  version 
formulated  by  Jesus,  in  being  in  a  rather  negative  form:  ''What 
you  would  not  have  others  do  to  you,  do  you  not  unto  them!" 

He  does  not  inculcate  any  active  efforts  at  doing  good  to 
others,  as  is  taught,  for  instance,  in  the  Golden  Rule  as  formulated 
by  Jesus:  "Do  unto  others  as  ye  would  that  they  should  do  unto 
you!" 

Confucianism  can  not  properly  be  called  a  religion,  because 
it  does  not  teach  a  belief  in  God,  or  demand  any  worship  of  God. 

Taoism,  Shintoism  and  Confucianism  teach  a  way  to  live 
which  conduces  to  happiness;  but  none  of  these  similar  beliefs 
teach  a  worship  of  God,  or  hold  out  hopes  of  future  rewards  or 
fear  of  future  punishments. 

Gautama,  a  Hindu  prince,  lived  about  450  B.C.  He  renounced 
wife  and  wealth,  became  an  ascetic,  devoted  himself  to  religious 
meditations  and  became  a  great  teacher  or  Buddha.  The  word 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  17 

Buddha  is  not  the  name  of  the  founder  of  Buddhism  but  is  a 
title — Teacher.  In  this  \ve  see  a  parallel  to  the  story  of  Jesus, 
called  Jesus  Christ;  the  word  Christ  is  not  a  name  but  a  title;  it 
means  "Messiah"  or  "Anointed."  Buddha  was  the  greatest  ag- 
nostic in  the  world's  history,  but  after  his  death  his  teachings 
were  ignored,  and  he  himself  became  an  object  of  worship  to  his 
followers,  in  this  regard  being  paralleled  by  the  history  of  Jesus, 
who  was  also  deified  after  his  death  and  is  now  worshipped  as  a 
god  by  the  Christians. 

After  the  death  of  Gautama,  many  myths  were  told  of  him; 
among  the  Hindus  he  is  considered  as  an  incarnation  or  an  "ata- 
var"  of  Vishnu. 

Buddhism  teaches  that  misery  is  inseparable  from  existence, 
and  that  final  bliss  consists  in  Nirvana,  a  ceasing  to  exist,  or  the 
final  extinction  of  the  soul.  To  reach  this  bliss  there  are  four 
"paths:"  1.  An  awakening  of  the  heart;  i.e.,  a  realization  that 
misery  and  existence  always  go  together;  that  unhappiness  neces- 
sarily is  a  prominent  part  of  man's  life.  2.  Getting  rid  of  impure 
desires  and  revengeful  feelings. 

Foremost  among  "impure  desires"  is  the  love  of  man  for 
woman,  the  promptings  of  sex;  it  is  curious  that  from  a  very 
early  age  those  who  were  the  religious  teachers  of  the  people,  and 
who  professed  to  have  inside  information  on  the  subject,  have 
contended  that  celibacy  is  the  better,  nobler  and  higher  condition 
in  this  life;  there  were  even  some  among  the  early  Christians 
who  claimed  that  those  who  became  married  forfeited  the  chance 
of  going  to  heaven.  So  also,  the  ascetics  among  the  Hindus  and 
Buddhists  had  this  same  idea;  in  fact,  it  is  a  characteristic  of 
fanatical  minds  in  all  religions.  Gautama  abandoned  his  young 
wife;  and  Jesus  said:  "Verily  I  say  unto  you,  There  is  no  man 
that  hath  left  house,  or  brethren,  or  sisters,  or  father,  or  mother, 
or  wife,  or  children,  or  lands,  for  my  sake,  and  the  gospel's,  but 
he  shall  receive  a  hundred-fold  now  in  this  time,  houses,  and 
brethren,  and  sisters,  and  mothers,  and  children,  and  lands,  with 
persecutions;  and  in  the  world  to  come,  eternal  life."  3.  Getting 
rid  of  ignorance,  doubt,  heresy,  unkindliness  and  vexation,  and 
4.  Universal  charity. 

In  a  surprisingly  short  period,  by  the  end  of  the  Fifth  Century 
B.C.,  Buddhism  had  overspread  the  major  part  of  Asia,  and  soon 
even  spread  to  Europe,  where  it  manifested  itself  as  Gnosticism, 


18 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


which  prevailed  widely  in  the  first  four  centuries  of  the  Christian 
era,  and  was  in  fact  a  powerful  rival  of  the  early  Christian  reli- 
gion. Gnosticism  caused  the  decay  and  destruction  of  the  beau- 
tiful and  cheerful  religions  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans. 

There  are  many  different  sects  of  Buddhism,  just  as  there 
are  among  the  Christians,  and  the  rivalry  and  even  hatred 
among  these  sects  for  each  other,  is  often  in  inverse  ratio  to  the 
actual  differences  of  faith. 

The  Chinese  and  Japanese  Buddhists  retained  the  worship 
of  their  ancestors  and  heroes,  which  was  probably  their  original 
faith,  adding  thereto  the  teachings  of  Gautama.  A  view  in  the 
temple  of  the  500  gods  in  Canton,  China,  is  shown  (Fig.  5) ;  the 


Fig.  5. — Temple  of  the  Five-hundred  Golden  Gods,  at  Canton,  China. 

images  are  portraits,  or  supposed  portraits,  of  a  long  line  of  illus- 
trious dead,  the  departed  heroes,  teachers  and  ancestors  who  are 
worshipped  by  the  Buddhists  of  China.  The  figures  are  carved 
in  wood  and  heavily  gilded,  wherefore  they  are  sometimes  called 
the  1 1 500  Golden  Gods ; ' '  this  aggregation  of  gods  is  presided  over 
by  Buddha,  who  is  seen  seated  at  the  end  of  the  hall. 

Lamaism,  or  Thibetan  Buddhism,  shows  a  remarkable  simi- 
larity to  the  ritual  and  ceremonial  of  the  Catholic  church,  although 
not  to  its  religious  teachings.  Buddhism  originated  a  celibate 
priesthood,  the  tonsure  or  shaven  crown  of  the  heads  of  the  priests 
(the  priestliood  comprises  popes,  bishops,  abbots,  celibate  orders 
of  monks  and  nuns),  cloisters,  the  mass  with  its  gorgeous  vest- 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  19 

ments  and  its  impressive  ceremonial;  the  Buddhists  have  and  use 
bells,  rosaries,  images,  incense,  holy  water,  religious  processions, 
feast  and  fast  days,  the  confessional,  and  they  believe  in  purga- 
tory and  the  worship  of  the  Virgin.  They  practice  endless  repe- 
titions of  prayers  which  are  counted  on  strings  of  beads  like  the 
rosaries  of  the  Catholics;  as  the  Buddhists  were  by  many  centu- 
ries the  earlier  practicers  of  these  ceremonials,  rites  and  beliefs, 
it  looks  reasonable  to  believe  that  the  Christians  obtained  these 
things  from  the  Buddhists,  although  perhaps  partly  at  least  by 
the  survival  of  ceremonials  of  the  priests  in  the  temples  of  Ju- 
piter and  the  gods  of  the  Roman  people. 

The  repetition  of  the  name  of  a  deity  or  saint,  or  of  a  prayer, 
a  certain  number  of  times,  is  a  very  meritorious  action ;  the  Bud- 
dhists have  cylinders  with  prayers  inscribed  on  them  (so-called 
"prayer-wheels")  which  a  devotee  turns  and  gets  the  credit  for 
all  the  prayers  thereon,  while  saving  him  the  trouble  of  actually 
saying  them.  Or  the  cylinders  are  turned  by  wrater  power  and 
the  devotee  pays  the  priests  connected  with  the  temple  a  certain 
fee  for  a  specified  time,  and  gets  credit  for  all  the  prayers  told 
off  in  this  manner,  while  he  himself  may  go  about  other  business. 

Buddhism  is  no  longer  popular  in  India  where  it  originated, 
although  there  are  still  many  Buddhists  in  that  country.  It  is  a 
custom  among  the  Hindu  Buddhists  to  train  parrots  to  repeat  the 
name  of  the  deity  Krishna-Radha,  for  which  the  owner  of  the  par- 
rot gets  the  credit. 

The  story  of  Buddha  is  almost  literally  reproduced  in  the 
Catholic  stories  of  Saints  Barlaam  and  Josaphat,  which  are 
merely  Christianized  versions  of  the  story  of  Buddha,  Lakya  and 
Muni. 

Taoism,  Shintoism,  Confucianism  and  Buddhism  agree  in 
ignoring  the  question  of  the  existence  of  a  deity  and  they  also 
agree  in  teaching  to  lead  a  life  of  purity;  also  in  offering  no  re- 
ward and  threatening  no  punishment  in  a  life  hereafter.  Bud- 
dhism teaches  that  virtue  accelerates  and  vice  retards  Nirvana,  or 
Final  Extinction. 

The  adherents  of  these  faiths  are  as  follows : 

Buddhism,  138,031,000 

Confucianism,  300,830,000 

Shintoism  (Taoism),         25,000,000 


20  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

Probably  none  of  those  three  religions  and  three  "ways  of 
life"  are  followed  in  their  original  forms  by  their  nominal  ad- 
herents. The  two  leading  religions  were  handed  down  by  oral 
transmission  simultaneously  for  a  thousand  years  or  more  in 
Southern  and  Southwestern  Asia,  thus  forming  a  folklore  com- 
mon to  a  certain  extent  to  the  whole  territory,  from  which  folk- 
lore the  writers  of  the  Rig-Vedas  and  the  Bible  drew  the  materials 
when  these  "books"  were  finally  reduced  to  writing.  They  were 
no  doubt  altered  by  contact  with  each  other,  and  moreover  the 
religions  became  incrusted  with  various  and  similar  superstitions 
of  common  origin,  until  they  acquired  many  features,  beliefs,  rit- 
uals and  symbolisms  in  common,  some  of  which  we  will  consider. 

In  addition  to  these  faiths  there  are  others  of  less  importance ; 
for  instance,  Animism,  which  is  a  belief  in  a  sort  of  world-soul 
which  inhabits  all  things;  it  is  a  sort  of  fetichism  common  in  parts 
of  Asia  and  most  of  Africa,  and  is  estimated  to  have  158,270,000 
believers. 

Then  there  is  Shamanism,  a  belief  in  magic  of  which  the 
priests  are  sorcerers,  as  among  the  Northern  Asiatic  people  as 
well  as  among  the  North  American  Indians;  this,  and  some  scat- 
tered unclassified  faiths,  have  about  15,280,000  followers. 

HOW  OLD  IS  MANKIND? 

This  subject  is  not  very  easy  to  answer,  nor  can  the  num- 
bers of  years  be  fixed  with  any  degree  of  accuracy;  we  must  be 
content  with  the  roughest  kind  of  estimates  merely. 

To  explain  the  subject  thoroughly  would  really  require  an 
explanation  of  the  mode  of  world-formation,  as  taught  in  geol- 
ogy, but  we  cannot  burden  this  book  with  details. 

Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  geological  ages  succeeded  one  another 
in  this  order.  First  and  lowest,  the  primitive  rocks,  in  which 
there  are  no  traces  of  fossils ;  the  age  when  they  were  formed  is 
called  the  Azoic  Age  or  age  without  life.  These  rocks  were  the 
scoriae  or  slag,  or  scum  which  floated  on  the  surfaces  of  the 
molten  materials  after  the  earth  had  cooled  sufficiently  to  com- 
mence to  form  a  solid  crust.  Until  this  surface  was  cool  enough 
to  allow  the  condensed  steam  from  the  atmosphere  or  nebula  to 
remain,  and  to  allow  life  to  occur,  many  hundreds  of  millions  of 
years  may  have  passed. 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP  21 

These  azoic  rocks  are  found  extensively  on  this  continent 
in  Canada ;  also,  an  island  of  them  existed  in  Missouri,  near  Pilot 
Knob  ( Granite ville). 

Most  of  the  succeeding  layers  of  rock  were  caused  by  sedi- 
mentation, although  some  of  them  were  of  volcanic  origin;  and 
some  were  sedimentary  rocks  melted  and  changed,  with  all  traces 
of  fossils  destro)7ed  by  volcanic  heat. 

The  lowest  sedimentary  rocks  are  called  "Huronian"  (they 
occur  in  the  neighborhood  of  Lake  Huron)  and  they  contain  the 
earliest  traces  of  fossils,  or  of  life,  such  as  the  Eozodn  Canadense, 
etc.  The  next  layer  is  the  "Cambrian"  which  contains  early 
forms  of  fossils,  of  mollusks,  such  as  oysters  and  clams ;  also,  fos- 
sils of  lobster-like  animals  and  of  seaweeds.  Above  this  and  there- 
fore next  succeeding  it,  comes  the  "Silurian"  rock,  containing  re- 
mains of  starfish,  crinoids,  trilobites,  early  forms  of  fishes  and 
seaweeds.  These  together  are  usually  called  the  "Age  of  Mol- 
lusks." 

Next  came  an  age  of  fishes,  most  of  which  are  now  extinct, 
although  some  forms,  like  the  gar,  still  survive;  there  are  also 
fossils  of  corals,  marsh-plants  and  gyinnosperms.  This  is  the 
Devonian  Period,  or  the  "Age  of  Fishes." 

During  the  next  period  there  was  a  great  development  of 
plant  life;  the  excess  of  carbon  dioxide  which  still  existed  in  the 
air,  and  which  prevented  the  existence  of  life  in  the  air  or  on  the 
land,  was  absorbed  and  the  carbon  thereof  fixed  and  deposited 
in  our  coal-beds.  This  period  is  therefore  called  the  "Carbon- 
iferous Age."  Corals  and  fishes  were  plentiful  and  towards  the 
end  of  this  period  the  fishes  began  to  develop  into  reptile  forms. 
Also  some  amphibians  (frogs)  occurred.  These  could  venture  out 
of  the  water  and  live  alternately  on  dry  land,  as  well  as  in  the 
water.  Taken  together,  from  the  Huronian  and  including  the 
last,  or  Carboniferous,  these  ages  formed  the  Primary  Period. 

Following  this  came  the  Secondary  Period.  The  lowest  forma- 
tion of  this  is  the  Triassic,  with  many  fossils  of  reptile  forms. 
Then  the  Jurassic,  with  fish-like,  reptile-like  and  bird-like  fossils, 
and  later  forms  of  vegetation.  Then  the  Cretaceous  period,  so- 
called  because  chalk  formations  were  common;  also  later  kinds 
of  trees,  exogenous,  "trees,  in  the  which  is  the  fruit  of  a  tree 
yielding  seed"  (Gen.  i,  29).  Together,  the  Secondary  Period  of 


22  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

life  formation,  marked  by  animals  able  to  live  on  land,  is  called 
the  "Age  of  Reptiles." 

The  Tertiary  Period  followed;  it  is  also  called  the  "Age  of 
Mammals"  or  the  "Mammalian  Age."  The  reptilian  forms  of 
animals  developed  into  mammals,  through  the  marsupials.  Mam- 
mals, including  man,  appeared  in  this  period,  as  did  also  the 
birds.  Lastly  came  the  Recent  Period,  also  called  "The  Age  of 
Man."  This  last  period  is  characterized  by  the  fossil  records  of 
tnan  and  his  handiwork,  such  as  stone  implements,  kitchen  mid- 
dens, caves  in  which  are  found  the  evidences  of  occupancy  by 
primitive  man,  the  homes  of  the  troglodites,  dolmens  and  other 
burial  places,  menhirs,  etc.  Only  one-half  of  one  per  cent  of  the 
sedimentary  rock  formations  which  contain  the  records  of  the 
life  history  of  the  world  were  formed  during  this  recent  period, 
the  age  of  man.  As  to  amount,  the  age  of  man  is  therefore  an 
almost  negligible  part  of  the  earth's  record  of  evolution,  yet  it 
is  the  most  important. 

We  will  not  argue  the  question,  whether  the  theory  of  evolu- 
tion is  true  or  not.  It  admits  of  no  such  discussion  for  all  sci- 
entists agree  that  it  is  true  in  its  main  features.  There  may  be  dif- 
ferences of  opinion  as  to  the  importance  of  details.  More  impor- 
tance is  now  given  to  the  influence  of  environment  and  less  to 
the  influence  of  sexual  selection  ("Darwinism"),  but  no  scien- 
tific writer  anywhere  now  contends  that  evolution  is  not  true. 

Darwinism,  the  theory  of  the  influence  of  sexual  selection,  is 
now  considered  only  as  one  factor,  possibly  not  even  the  most 
important  factor,  in  the  unfolding  of  the  life  history  of  our  globe. 

Nevertheless,  the  differentiation  of  organic  beings  into  male 
and  female  or  the  Evolution  of  Sex,  was  a  wonderful  advance 
over  previous  asexual  or  hermaphrodite  forms  because  it  intro- 
duced an  element  which  contributed  greatly  to  variation  in  forms 
of  living  beings. 

Sex  antedates  the  appearance  of  man  by  untold  seons  of  time. 

The  estimates  of  the  age  of  the  earth  are  based  on  many  con- 
siderations; one  of  these  is  a  calculation  how  long  it  must  have 
taken  for  a  molten  mass  of  the  size  and  constitution  of  our  earth 
to  have  cooled  down  by  radiation  of  heat  into  space,  to  its  present 
temperature.  Large  portions  of  its  interior  are  still  incandescent, 
as  is  shown  by  the  activity  of  volcanoes  and  the  flows  of  lava. 

Sir  William  Thompson  estimated  that  the  earth's  crust  can 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP  23 

not  have  been  solidified  for  more  than  400  millions  of  years  and 
probably  not  for  more  than  200  millions  of  years. 

The  rate  of  erosion  by  rain  and  water,  and  frost,  in  reducing 
mountain  ranges  or  excavating  river  beds,  the  rapidity  (or  rather 
the  slowness)  of  formation  of  stalactites  or  stalagmites  in  caves, 
etc.,  have  all  been  considered. 

The  age  of  life  on  earth  is  estimated  by  some  geologists 
at  about  72,000,000  of  years,  yet  it  may  be  much  older  or  much 
younger;  it  is  only  an  approximate  guess,  but  based  on  the  best 
grounds  that  scientists  could  find,  and  the  first  appearance  of 
sex  dates  back  to  the  first  appearance  of  life  on  our  earth,  for 
the  first  living  organisms,  the  algae,  have  sex! 


Fig.  6. — The    oldest    writing   known — the   Hoffman    tablet    in    the    General    Theological 
Seminary,  New  York  City;   5,000  B.C. 

The  time  when  the  evolution  of  primitive  man  from  previous 
lower  forms  took  place,  is  variously  estimated,  from  about  20,000 
years  by  some  scientists  to  a  quarter  of  a  million  or  to  two  or  three 
millions  of  years  by  others. 

The  lower  estimate  must  be  rejected,  because  man  was  too 
far  advanced  in  the  earliest  days  of  authentic  history,  for  the  re- 
mainder of  the  20,000  years  to  have  sufficed  for  his  physical  evo- 
lution. Written  history,  or  rather,  sculptured  history,  goes  back 
perhaps  to  four  or  five  thousand  years  before  Christ,  or  in  the 
aggregate,  to  about  7,000  years  ago. 

And  since  then  no  material  change  has  occurred  in  the  form 
of  man  as  proved  by  the  sculptures  of  different  races  in  the  tern- 


24  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

pie  inscriptions  of  Egypt.  At  the  recorded  rate  of  evolution,  the 
13,000  years  would  not  suffice  to  explain  the  previous  evolution 
from  mammalian  forms  to  primitive  man. 

When  mammals  began  to  change  to  more  or  less  anthropoid 
forms,  man  was  one  of  the  final  outcomes  of  this  evolution.  But 
man  did  not  descend  from  any  of  the  present  anthropoid  apes, 
although  he  must  have  gone  through  similar  forms  that  are  now 
extinct.  Man  is  not  a  twig  from  the  branch  from  the  mammals 
that  produced  the  apes,  but  a  collateral  branch  from  the  mammals 
direct,  developing  at  the  same  time  that  the  ape-line  was  develop- 
ing, in  a  similar  direction,  but  with  a  higher  outcome. 

It  is  a  popular  misapprehension  of  the  theory  of  evolution 
to  think  that  mankind  descended  from  monkeys,  as  was  expressed 
by  the  little  girl  in  a  school  essay:  "Men  are  what  women  marry; 
they  smoke  and  chew  and  don't  go  to  church.  Men  and  women 
sprang  from  monkeys,  but  women  sprang  the  farther." 

Another  estimate  of  the  earth's  age  is  based  on  a  calculation 
from  astronomical  considerations,  or  calculations,  as  to  when  the 
glacial  epoch  occurred.  This  estimate  makes  the  time  since  the 
end  of  the  glacial  epocli  until  now  about  250,000  years. 

Evidence  has  been  found  to  prove  that  man  existed  before 
the  glacial  epoch.  Suppose  we  assume  the  evolution  of  man  to 
have  taken  place  about  250,000  years  ago,  then  man  dates  back 
only  about  l/288th  part  of  the  world's  existence;  or  rather,  of 
the  time  which  is  assumed  to  have  elapsed  since  the  earth  had 
sufficiently  cooled  off  to  become  a  solid  globe,  formed  out  of  the 
primordial  nebular  chaos,  and  far  enough  advanced  to  permit  life 
to  originate  on  its  surface. 

About  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century  a  portion  of  the 
skull  of  a  prehistoric  man  was  found  in  the  ancient  bed  of  the 
Thames  River.  From  various  geological  indications  it  was  reck- 
oned that  this  man  was  drowned  and  lost  in  the  mud  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  river  not  less  than  170,000  years  ago,  and  the  struc- 
ture of  the  skull  showed  that  he  by  no  means  belonged  to  the  type 
of  the  Neanderthal  man  or  the  man  of  Aix  Les  Chapelles,  or  of 
the  usual  primitive  ancestral  (" Alalus"}  type  (Fig.  7-A)  but  that 
he  was  already  far  in  advance  of  these  types. 

The  Age  of  Mammals  is  divided  into  several  periods,  as  in- 
dicated in  this  diagram: 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


YEAHS 


FOSSILS,    ETC. 


150.000 

Of  Man 

Recent,   or   Human 

1,500,000 

Fossils  of   Man   and  specimen? 
of  his  handiwork,  imple- 
ments, etc. 

Pleistocene,  or 
Glacial 

6,000,000 

Pithecanthropus 
(Fossil  Man  of  Java)  and 
Stone  Implements 

Pliocene 

~. 

8,000,000               : 

Primates,  Apes,  Anthropoids, 
etc. 

Miocene 

0 

-.1 
•^ 

10,000,000 

Modern  Mammals 
Primitive  Mammals 

Eocene 

In  tliis  diagram  the  estimated  length  of  the  periods  is  stated 
in  years.  It  is  claimed  that  stone  implements  have  been  found  in 
miocene  formations;  but  let  us  assume  only  the  much  stronger 
claim  that  they  occurred  in  the  early  or  lower  Pliocene  times,  and 
it  will  put  the  earliest  traces  of  man's  handiwork  back  to  between 
six  and  eight  million  years  ago ;  or  suppose  we  go  back  to  the  ear- 
liest period  in  which  fossils  of  man  himself  occurred,  to  the  Pithe- 
canthropus (Fig.  7-B)  or  Fossil  Man  of  Java,  in  the  later  or  upper 
Pliocene  times,  and  it  puts  the  date  of  man's  first  appearance  on 
earth  back  to  about  two  million  years  ago.  This  latter  time  is  in- 
dicated by  the  upper  part  of  the  heavy  line  on  the  left,  which 
marks  the  period  in  which  positive  proof  of  man's  existence  was 
found  by  the  discovery  of  his  fossil  remains. 

In  Miocene  deposits  in  France  have  been  found  remains  of 
a  variety  of  ape  as  large  as  man,  together  with  chipped  flints,  ar- 
tificially cut  bones,  etc.;  these  apes  seem  to  have  been  higher  than 
any  anthropoid  apes  now  living,  yet  their  fossils  are  not  human, 
in  the  generally  accepted  sense,  unless  we  accept  the  definition 
"human"  to  include  any  being  who  could  make  chipped  flint  im- 
plements. This  ape,  the  Dryopitliecus,  partook  sufficiently  of  hu- 
man traits,  to  be  considered  as  a  ''missing  link,"  if  we  do  not 
wish  to  consider  him  archaic  human.  At  about  this  same  time  un- 
doubtedly human  beings  existed  in  Portugal  and  California,  be- 
fore the  end  of  the  Miocene  or  about  the  beginning  of  the  Pliocene 
period. 


26 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


Below,  in  the  Eocene  period,  is  another  black  line,  which 
shows  the  time  of  Avhich  we  are  positive  that  man  did  not  exist. 
Between  these  two  black  portions  of  this  line,  is  a  dotted  portion, 
which  marks  the  geological  time  during  which  the  evolution  of 
man  probably  took  place. 

In  Miocene  times  the  evolution  of  the  apes,  anthropoids,  pri- 
mates, and  man  probably  took  place  simultaneously.  As  already 
stated,  man  did  not  descend  (or  ascend)  from  any  now  existing 
types  of  apes,  but  from  a  collateral  primitive  branch;  he  may 
therefore  have  been  in  process  of  evolution  at  the  same  time  as 


Fig.  7-A. — ' '  Alalus  Europaeus, ' ' 
painted  by  Gabriel  Max,  according 
to  suggestions  by  Karl  Vogt. 


Fig.  7-B. — Pithecanthropus,  or  the  Man 
of  Java.  After  Osborn  's  Men  of  the  Old 
Stone  Age. 


the  other  Primates,  sometime  between  the  end  of  the  Eocene  and 
the  end  of  the  Pliocene  periods. 

At  all  events,  whatever  the  period  at  which  he  was  produced, 
and  however  many  or  few  years  we  ascribe  to  these  periods,  man- 
kind has  attained  a  great  age  and  dates  back  to  very  hoary 
antiquity. 

There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  the  process  of  evolution 
of  man  took  place  in  any  great  number  of  individuals  at  the  same 
time,  nor  in  any  uninterrupted  or  unbroken  series  of  generations. 
All  progress  in  advancement  must  have  been  more  or  less  spo- 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  27 

radical,  accompanied  by  reversions  of  type  or  degenerations,  be- 
cause the  process  was  not  a  conscious  one  on  the  part  of  primitive 
man. 

When  our  breeders  of  stock  of  any  kind  determine  to  perpet- 
uate some  certain  feature,  or  on  eliminating  some  other  feature, 
they  are  able  to  get  results  in  a  comparatively  short  time,  first, 
because  there  are  so  many  generations  of  any  kind  of  stock  in 
so  short  a  time;  then  the  breeder  absolutely  controls  conditions 
of  mating  and  breeding;  he  selects  both  males  and  females  and 
permits  only  those  of  the  offspring  to  live  and  breed  again,  which 
have  advanced  along  the  lines  he  was  aiming  at,  and  he  kills  and 
sends  to  market  those  individuals  which  failed  to  satisfy  his 
expectations.  Or,  in  certain  cases,  he  castrates  or  spays  the  in- 
dividuals that  he  does  not  want  to  breed  again.  Thus,  in  even 
the  lifetime  of  one  man,  the  result  aimed  at  may  be  achieved, 
and  it  may  be  maintained  for  an  indefinite  length  of  time  by  a 
little  care  in  culling  out  any  specimens  that  show  a  reversion  in 
type. 

But  even  great  and  permanent  good  results  may  be  had  by 
a  community  of  farmers,  for  instance,  buying  a  high-breed  boar 
or  bull,  and  then  breeding  from  him  with  their  ordinary  female 
stock,  without  any  further  effort  at  improvement.  AVhile  in  this 
way  the  offspring  will  not  be  pure-bred  or  high-bred,  there  will 
be  an  impress  on  all  the  hogs  or  all  the  cattle  of  the  neighbor- 
hood, due  to  the  hereditary  impulses  imparted  by  the  one  sire. 

In  primitive  man,  on  the  other  hand,  no  intelligent  control 
was  exerted  and  the  changes  in  the  lifetime  of  one  individual  or 
generation  were  possibly  hardly  appreciated.  When  one  individ- 
ual showed  peculiarities  that  tended  in  the  direction  of  what  we 
now  call  "higher"  development,  or  more  human-like  traits,  such 
traits  may  not  even  have  appealed  to  the  other  individuals  as 
being  advantageous;  in  fact,  from  the  standpoint  of  a  savage 
anthropoid  animal,  if  he  reasoned  at  all,  some  of  these  features 
may  have  seemed  a  physical  drawback  rather  than  an  advantage. 

Then  interbreeding  with  the  more  backward  individuals  con- 
tinued, tending  in  the  offspring  towards  reversion  to  a  more  or 
less  uniform  type,  although,  as  in  the  case  of  the  boar  or  bull 
mentioned  above,  advantageous  traits,  physical  or  intellectual, 
must  have  been  impressed  more  or  less  distinctly  on  all  succeed- 
ing offspring,  so  that  distinct,  even  if  slight  advancement  re- 


28  SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP 

suited.  This  impress  of  superior  individuals  would  leave  its  per- 
manent results,  notwithstanding  the  general  mediocrity  or  uni- 
formity of  the  mass  of  the  race. 

Promiscuous  and  uncontrolled  interbreeding  in  animals  or 
man  necessarily  retards  progress,  and  tends  to  make  the  type 
uniform,  but  it  can  not  altogether  undo  the  influence  of  now  and 
then  an  exceptionally  highly  bred  male  or  female.  A  sire  im- 
presses more  the  generation  immediately  following,  and  is  usu- 
ally more  noticeable  than  the  influence  of  a  female;  the  latter 
impresses  her  influence,  however,  just  as  surely,  but  more  slowly, 
in  the  succeeding  generations. 

The  advance  in  humankind  must  have  been  infinitely  slow, 
and  often  sadly  interrupted  by  inferior  strains  in  the  breeding 
ancestors.  Nor  is  there  any  ground  for  the  theory  that  early  or 
primitive  man  formulated  any  abstract  ideas,  about  religion,  for 
example ;  and  thousands  of  generations  may  have  passed,  making 
slow  progress  in  physical  regards,  before  the  "Alalus"  (Fig.  7- A) 
had  a  dawning  in  his  mind,  of  speech,  thoughts,  or  awe  of  super- 
natural beings.  The  Alalus  was  so  named  by  Vogt,  from  a  Greek 
word  meaning  "speech-less;"  fossil  skulls  of  man  have  been 
found  with  chins  so  shaped  that  it  seems  probable  that  the  indi- 
vidual whose  skull  it  was  could  not  have  uttered  articulate  speech. 

Time  enough  elapsed  in  this  way  to  account  for  the  scatter- 
ing of  man  to  every  part  of  the  inhabitable  world,  and  not  once 
only,  but  repeatedly,  and  to  carry  to  all  parts  of  the  world  any 
ideas  accepted  by  man  in  the  early  stages  of  evolution.  When 
history  began,  the  world  was  populated,  even  many  of  the  isolated 
islands  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  being  the  homes  of  primitive  types 
of  men. 

The  inhabitants  of  New  Zealand,  for  instance,  have  a  tradi- 
tion that  their  ancestors  were  cast  on  their  shores  after  having 
been  lost  at  sea.  When  they  were  discovered  by  white  naviga- 
tors their  similarity  to  the  Hawaiians  was  noticed,  and  the  Mao- 
ries  are  probably  Hawaiian  stock.  A  Hawaiian  brought  to  New 
Zealand  can  understand  the  language,  or  vice  versa;  and  to  a 
great  extent  this  is  true  of  other  Polynesian  islands. 

As  an  example  of  how  the  Pacific  islands  became  populated, 
we  may  consider  the  history  of  Pitcairn  Island,  in  the  East  Pa- 
cific. This  is  a  volcanic  island  about  three  miles  long  by  two 
miles  wide,  rising  abruptly  from  the  deep  ocean,  and  therefore 


SEX    AXD    SEX    WORSHIP  29 

without  coral  atolls.  It  has  some  fertile  soil,  but  no  springs  or 
streams,  but  there  is  usually  plenty  of  water  from  rainfall,  or 
occasional  snowfall  in  winter.  Requiring  cistern  supply  or  stor- 
age for  occasional  drought  periods  would  probably  have  pre- 
vented this  island  from  becoming  the  home  of  a  Polynesian 
savage  tribe.  Yams  and  some  other  agricultural  products  grow 
abundantly. 

In  the  year  1789  the  crew  of  the  English  ship  "Bounty" 
mutinied  and  set  their  officers  adrift  in  a  small  boat ;  and  the  crew 
put  back  to  Tahiti.  Here  some  of  the  crew  left,  but  nine  English- 
men either  persuaded  or  compelled  six  Tahitians  and  twelve 
Tahitian  women  to  go  with  them,  and  they  sailed  until  they  came 
to  an  uninhabited  island.  Here  they  landed  and  settled  down, 
glad  to  be  beyond  the  reach  of  the  law  that  condemned  mutineers 
to  death.  To  make  sure  that  they  would  not  be  found,  they  de- 
stroyed the  evidence  by  burning  the  "Bounty." 

Of  those  who  remained  in  Talwti,  some  were  found  and  exe- 
cuted as  mutineers,  the  officers  having  been  rescued  and  having 
told  the  story. 

Now  the  mistake  that  was  made  by  the  settlers  on  Pitcairn 
Island  was,  that  they  did  not  take  enough  women  with  them  for 
all  the  men,  for  jealousies  and  hatreds  were  engendered  which 
resulted  in  so  many  murders  that  by  the  year  1793  only  four 
Englishmen  and  ten  Tahitian  women  survived;  these  four  Eng- 
lishmen came  to  an  agreement  as  to  the  possession  of  the  ten 
women,  and  quit  killing  one  another ;  by  the  year  1800  all  the  jnen 
were  dead  except  one,  John  Adams,  who  lived  in  Patriarchal  style, 
taught  the  children  reading  and  writing,  and  the  Christian 
religion. 

The  island  was  visited  by  a  passing  ship  in  1808,  and  by  an- 
other ship  in  1817.  By  this  time  there  was  quite  a  colony  of  sober, 
industrious,  virtuous  inhabitants.  In  1856,  sixty  married  men  with 
their  wives  and  children  (134  in  all)  abandoned  the  island  and  lo- 
cated elsewhere,  but  in  1858  two  men  and  their  families  returned, 
and  were  soon  followed  by  others.  The  island  is  now  a  prosperous 
settlement,  proud  of  their  English  ancestors  and  living  happily, 
governed  by  Scotch-English  thrift  and  virtues. 

We  can  not  believe  that  the  evolution  of  man  took  place  on  each 
separate  island;  in  fact,  we  Imow  thai  this  was  not  the  case,  be- 
cause in  most  of  the  islands  (Australia,  for  example,  and  certainly 


30  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

in  all  smaller  islands)  there  were  no  materials  from  which  men 
could  have  been  evolved.  The  conditions  in  Australia  were  those 
of  the  earliest  marsupial  periods  of  the  Age  of  Mammals,  when 
Australia  first  became  known  to  modern  Europeans;  therefore 
man  must  have  come  to  Australia  and  other  islands  from  elsewhere, 
and  as  such  an  evolution  could  not  have  taken  place  in  the  limited 
space  of  a  small  island,  we  must  assume  the  islands  to  have  been 
populated  by  the  advent  of  man  from  the  continents,  or  adjacent 
islands. 

War  parties  starting  out  from  the  continent  or  from  other 
islands  may  have  lost  their  way;  storms  may  have  driven  them 
elsewhere ;  they  may  have  perished  by  shipwreck  or  starvation,  or 
have  been  driven  to  the  shores  of  other  islands,  beyond  any  hope 
or  possibility  of  finding  their  way  home  again. 

In  these  new  islands  they  may  have  existed  until  the  last  of 
them  died ;  possibly  fighting  off  starvation  as  best  they  could,  hav- 
ing recourse  even  to  cannibalism  or  anthropophagy.  Nearly  all 
Pacific  islanders  were  addicted  to  cannibalism  when  first  discov- 
ered, due  possibly  to  the  difficulty  of  securing  enough  food  other- 
wise. 

Or  these  expeditions  of  warriors  may  have  been  from  exoga- 
mous  tribes  who  started  out  to  capture  women  for  wives,  and  the 
storm  that  beat  them  out  of  their  course  may  have  occurred  after 
they  had  secured  the  female  captives  they  went  for.  In  such  a 
case,  if  the  island  on  which  they  landed  was  large  enough,  they 
founded  another  isolated  tribe  or  horde  which  became  modified  by 
environment  and  the  influence  of  the  traits  possessed  by  the  fe- 
males whom  they  made  their  wives.  And  they  carried  the  tra- 
ditions of  any  primitive  folklore  with  them,  so  that  we  find  similar 
ideas  about  heaven  and  earth  and  the  creation  of  all  things,  prac- 
tically of  the  same  type  or  nature,  from  the  regions  of  the  Medi- 
terranean Sea  to  the  remotest  islands  of  Polynesia,  New  Zealand, 
etc.,  as  already  referred  to  in  the  beginning  of  this  book. 

We  find  characteristics  of  bodily  structure  and  of  religious 
belief  common  to  the  ancient  Egyptians  and  to  the  Aztecs  of 
Mexico  and  Central  America.  How  could  this  have  happened? 
It  is  not  necessary  to  believe  that  in  very  early  days  there  was 
overland  communication  from  Asia  to  Alaska,  from  one  continent 
to  another.  The  Aleutian  islands  would  have  sufficed  for  such 
communication;  but  it  is  doubtful  whether  people  would  or  could 


SEX    AND   SEX    WORSHIP  31 

have  traveled  overland  so  far,  or  whether  they  could  have  car- 
ried with  them  religious  ideas  from  the  west  of  Asia  to  Central 
America,  without  leaving  more  traces  of  their  presence  or  of 
their  faiths  to  the  tribes  on  the  way.  Moreover,  as  the  glacial 
period  occurred  to  interfere  with  travel  by  an  overland  route,  it 
is  almost  certain  that  no  communication  between  Asia  and  Amer- 
ica occurred  in  this  way. 

Nor  is  it  probable  that  there  was  a  large  continent  or  island 
in  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  which  in  prehistoric  times  facilitated  com- 
munication between  Africa  and  America,  the  subsidence  of  which 
continent  is  held  by  some  authors  to  account  for  the  general 
prevalence  of  the  story  of  the  flood  in  so  many  religions,  both  in 
the  Eastern  and  Western  continents.  Of  course,  this  all  might 
have  been  true,  but  the  probability  is  that  it  is  not  true,  but 
simply  a  myth. 

It  was  stated  in  a  history  of  the  United  States  published  in 
1891,  that  "within  the  last  100  years  no  less  than  40  Japanese 
vessels  have  been  blown  ashore  on  the  Pacific  coast  of  North 
America."  On  some  of  these  ships  some  of  the  men  were  still 
alive;  such  may  have  occurred  more  or  less  regularly  even  thou- 
sands of  years  ago,  and  there  may  have  been  women  among  the 
survivors  of  some  of  these  boats  so  that  mankind  may  have  been 
brought  here  from  the  place  in  Asia  where  many  suppose  his 
original  home  was.  Or,  if  we  prefer  to  assume  that  the  evolution 
of  man  took  place  on  this  continent  also,  the  men  from  Asia  may 
have  intermarried  with  women  of  America,  thus  modifying  the 
regular  Amerindian  type  by  the  admixture  of  Asiatic  strain,  and 
these  men  may  have  perpetuated  some  of  their  Asiatic  religious 
beliefs  by  ingrafting  them  on  native  American  religions. 

The  British  Encyclopedia  says  that  it  is  most  probable  that 
the  civilization  of  pre-historic  Peru  originated  in  China,  and  gives 
many  reasons  for  such  a  statement. 

In  Central  America  tradition  said  that  a  white  man  came 
from  overseas  (many  centuries  B.C.).  He  announced  to  the  peo- 
ple, who  were  savages  at  that  time,  a  knowledge  of  the  "god  of 
•all  truth"  and  built  a  temple  to  him.  When  the  Europeans  first 
discovered  Central  America,  they  found  there  traces  of  some  of 
the  Egyptian  and  Greek  mysteries.  It  is  possible  that  some  an- 
cient Phoenician  sailors,  who  are  known  to  have  navigated  the 
ocean  as  far  as  Great  Britain  and  even  Scandinavia,  may  have 


32  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

reached  Iceland,  and  from  there  America,  carrying  with  them 
knowledge  of  the  mysteries  of  Western  Asiatic  and  Egyptian 
religions. 

Another  Central  American  tradition  said  that  at  a  time  which 
corresponded  with  that  immediately  before  our  own  era,  a  party 
filling  seven  ships  under  the  leadership  of  Quetzalcohuatl,  wearing 
long  flowing  robes  and  long  beards,  came  from  the  east.  Another 
tradition  related  that  people  came  from  a  region  of  the  frozen 
parts  of  the  earth  (about  635  A.D.)  who  reached  Mexico  after 
wandering  for  forty  years,  and  that  these  latter  established  the 
Toltec  empire.  The  Toltecs  were  a  tall  white  people! 

We  know  that  Norwegians  discovered  Rhod'e  Island  as  early 
as  1000  A.D.,  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  some  of  them  by  sailing 
along  the  coast  finally  came  to  Central  America.  At  all  events, 
it  is  very  curious  that  the  Central  Americans  knew  about  an  arc- 
tic or  frozen  part  of  the  earth. 

Aristotle,  Plato  and  Seneca  made  references  in  their  works 
to  a  land  hidden  far  to  the  west  in  the  western  ocean.  The  Brit- 
ish Encyclopedia  says  ''America  had  of  course  been  known  to  the 
barbarian  nations  of  Asia  for  thousands  of  years." 

The  Toltecs  had  a  tradition,  and  showed  the  ruins  of  a  tower 
in  proof,  of  a  tower  which  was  built  for  the  purpose  of  reaching 
heaven ;  and  that  when  this  was  being  built  God  gave  to  each  fam- 
ily its  own  particular  speech.  To  find  here  a  tradition  of  the 
story  of  the  tower  of  Babel,  is  certainly  odd.  Combine  with  this 
the  general  belief  in  some  circles  that  the  North  American  Indi- 
ans are  the  descendants  of  the  lost  tribes  of  Israel,  and  the  sup- 
position that  there  had  been  communication  between  East  Asiatic 
as  well  as  West  Asiatic  people  and  Mexican  and  Central  Amer- 
ican people  becomes  more  than  merely  possible ;  it  becomes  prob- 
able, and  the  occurrence  of  similar  religious  ideas  and  symbols 
is  accounted  for. 

No  people  were  ever  more  addicted  to  making  human  sacri- 
fices than  the  Aztecs.  At  the  chief  annual  festival,  at  the  winter 
solstice,  of  their  god  of  war  Huitzilopochtli,  a  sort  of  communion 
was  celebrated,  at  which  a  large  cake,  with  which  the  blood  of  a 
sacrificed  child  was  mixed,  was  divided  among  the  people.  This 
child  represented  the  divinity. 

The  Mayas,  a  people  also  living  in  Mexico,  had  a  tradition 
of  a  white  man,  or  god,  who  visited  them  and  taught  them  to  ab- 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP 


33 


stain  from  bloody  sacrifices,  and  to  offer  bread,  flowers  and  per- 
fumes. This  may  have  been  a  white  man,  possibly  a  white  mis- 
sionary, whom  fate  had  carried  to  America  with  one  of  the  pre- 
historic arrivals  of  Japanese  junks.  The  reference  to  perfume 
seems  to  point  to  the  introduction  of  incense,  so  that  this  ''white 
god"  was  possibly  a  Catholic  or  Buddhist  missionary,  long  be- 
fore Columbus  discovered  America. 

When  the  Spaniards  first  came  to  Mexico,  the  missionaries 
were  astonished  to  find  that  figures  of  a  crucifix  were  used  in  the 
religious  ceremonies  of  these  people;  the  figures  were  made  in 
the  plastic  material  which  is  even  now  used  in  that  country,  sun- 


rig.  8. — A  mould  to  make  adobe  figures  of  the  crucifixion ;  prehistoric  Mexican ;  intaglio. 

baked  clay,  or  adobe.  No  specimens  of  these  figures  have  been 
found  so  far,  but  in  one  of  the  temple  ruins  was  found  a  stone 
mould,  in  which  a  figure  of  a  crucified  person  was  cut  intaglio, 
so  that  the  modeled  figure  would  be  cameo  style  (Fig.  8).  Here 
is  a  copy  of  this  mould,  after  a  woodcut  in  a  "History  of  the 
Cross;"  is  this  a  Christian  crucifix?  Or  was  it,  as  the  Spanish 
missionaries  thought,  an  invention  of  the  devil  to  mock  the  Chris- 
tian faith?  Or  perhaps,  was  it  introduced  by  the  "white  God" 
of  the  Mayas,  and  was  the  latter  a  Catholic  missionary,  cast  away 
to  these  distant  shores?  We  can  only  guess;  it  is  possible,  prob- 
able even,  provided  only  that  we  assume  time  enough  to  have 


34  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

elapsed.  And  time  was  abundant;  the  calculation  of  the  age  of 
mankind  shows  that  even  if  we  reduce  it  to  one-tenth  the  time, 
it  would  still  suffice  for  the  scattering  of  primitive  man  and  prim- 
itive folklore  all  over  the  world. 

HOW  MANY  RACES  OF  MEN? 

It  does  not  interest  us  much,  for  the  purpose  of  studying 
sex,  to  inquire  whether  man  is  of  one  species  only,  or  more. 
During  slavery  times  it  was  customary  to  assert  that  the  negro 
race  was  an  inferior  species,  and  the  argument  used  was  that 
whites  and  negroes  could  not  perfectly  interbreed;  that  the  mu- 
lattoes  became  infertile  and  could  not  reproduce  their  kind  be- 
tween themselves,  although  interbreeding  between  mulatto  and 
either  white  or  black  took  place  readily.  Thus,  white  men  could 
procreate  with  mulatto  women,  to  produce  quadroons  and  again, 
octoroons,  etc.,  while  mulatto  women  with  mulatto  mates  remained 
sterile.  This  was  probably  merely  claimed  to  justify  the  theory 
that  the  negro  race  was  of  a  different  species,  and  thus  to  justify 
slavery,  and  the  statements  were  not  based  on  correct  premises  or 
on  facts. 

Man  has  been  studied  very  thoroughly,  but  opinions  have 
varied  very  materially  in  regard  to  this  question.  While  it  is  of 
course  preposterous  to  believe  that  mankind  originated  from  a 
single  pair,  or  that  evolution  was  confined  to  one  restricted  dis- 
trict, yet  it  is  possible  that  this  evolution  took  place  in  one  quar- 
ter of  the  world  only  and  resulted  in  one  species  only,  as  is  be- 
lieved by  the  majority  of  writers  on  this  subject;  Virej  assumed 
two  distinct  species,  and  in  general,  writers  often  mention  "  su- 
perior" and  " inferior"  races  of  mankind  without,  however,  dis- 
tinctly claiming  two  or  more  species  in  the  proper  biological  sense. 

Jacquinot  assumed  three  species;  Kant,  four;  Blumenbach, 
five;  Buff  on,  six;  Hunter,  seven;  Agassiz,  eight;  Pickering, 
eleven;  Bory  St.  Vincent,  fifteen;  Desmoulins,  sixteen;  Morton, 
twenty-two;  Crawford,  sixty,  and  Burke  sixty-three. 

The  Biblical  claim,  of  course,  is  one  species  only ;  God  created 
man  in  his  own  image  (Gen.  i,  27),  only  a  little  lower  than  the 
angels  (Ps.  viii,  5),  and  the  variation  of  races  occurred  by  dif- 
ferentiation among  the  descendants  of  the  sons  of  Noah  (chapters 
ix  and  x  of  Genesis). 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


35 


PRIMITIVE  MAN 

Primitive  man  was  essentially  an  unreasoning  brute,  intel- 
lectually but  little  above  other  beasts;  self-consciousness  of  race 
probably  does  not  date  back  much  more  than  100  or  200  thousand 
years.  Some  archaeologists  maintain  that  the  earliest  traces  of 
the  handiwork  of  man,  arrow-heads  and  other  stone  implements, 
were  not  produced  more  than  about  ten  thousand  years  ago,  but 
other  writers  ascribe  a  vastly  greater  age;  many  such  finds  have 
been  assigned  to  pre-glacial  times,  or  perhaps  250  thousand  years 
ago.  For  instance,  this  little  figure  (Fig.  9),  of  which  three  dif- 
ferent views  are  shown,  was  found  in  the  borings  brought  up  from 
the  bottom  of  an  artesian  well  near  Nampa,  in  Idaho.  The  ar- 
rangement of  such  a  well  permits  only  the  entrance  of  the  detritus 


Fig.  9. — Three  views  of  the  same  burnt  clay  figure,  found  at  Nampa,  Idaho ;  pre-glacial. 

of  boring  at  the  bottom;  when  this  well  had  reached  the  depth  of 
320  feet,  this  little  figure  of  burnt  clay,  shown  here  in  about  actual 
size,  came  up  with  the  expelled  mud  and  water. 

The  valley,  or  the  place  where  the  well  was  dug,  had  been 
filled  up  by  the  detritus  from  the  erosion  of  the  mountains  to  a 
depth  of  320  feet  below  the  present  surface,  when  the  primitive 
man  lived,  who  fashioned  this  little  figure  and  threw  it  into  the 
fire  where  it  was  burnt  to  brick.  After  he  had  done  this,  more 
detritus  came  down  into  the  valley  and  covered  this  specimen  of 
early  American  art ;  volcanic  eruptions  took  place,  and  a  layer  or 
stratum  of  lava  was  among  the  superincumbent  layers ;  then  more 
detritus,  etc.,  was  added  and  the  surface  rocks,  320  feet  above  the 
place  where  this  little  statuette  had  rested  for  so  many  ages, 
show  glacial  markings  on  their  surface!  They  were  there  when 


36  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

the  glacial  epoch  occurred,  be  this  30  thousand  or  250  thousand 
years  or  a  million  years  ago. 

The  recording  of  thoughts,  whether  by  sculptures,  pictures 
or  picture  writing,  ideographs,  primitive  symbols,  or  carved  or 
written  language  of  any  kind,  is  of  comparatively  recent  date; 
it  is  generally  estimated  to  have  been  invented  not  more  than 
about  10,000  years  ago. 

Few  writers  ascribe  any  greater  age  to  actual  records,  though 
to  works  of  art  involving  no  language  much  greater  ages  have 
been  assigned  by  some  authors;  it  is  doubtful,  however,  how 
much  credence  can  be  given  to  dates  exceeding  12000  to  16000 
years. 

Pliny,  the  Elder  (I  Cent.  A.D.),  it  is  true,  wrote:  "Epigenes, 
a  writer  of  very  great  authority,  informs  us  that  the  Babylonians 
have  a  series  of  observations  on  the  stars,  for  a  period  of  seven 
hundred  and  twenty  thousand  years,  inscribed  on  baked  bricks. 
Berosus  and  Critodemus,  who  make  the  period  the  shortest,  give 
it  as  four  hundred  and  ninety  thousand  years.  From  this  state- 
ment, it  would  appear  that  letters  have  been  in  use  from  all  eter- 
nity. ' '  But  this  statement  is  probably  due  to  the  early  habit  which 
exaggerated  age,  as  for  instance  in  stating  the  ages  of  the  patri- 
archs, in  the  Bible. 

Yet  mankind  made  more  progress  intellectually  in  the  last 
two  or  three  Centuries,  than  in  all  the  previous  ages.  Even  100 
years  ago  but  few  of  the  modern  inventions  were  known.  The 
utilization  of  natural  forces,  steam,  electricity,  etc.,  for  the  pro- 
duction of  power  dates  back  but  little  over  one  hundred  years. 
Steam  engines,  telegraphs,  electric  lights,  telephones,  etc.,  are  but 
of  yesterday. 

With  the  exception  of  a  few  processes  accidentally  or  empir- 
ically discovered  but  not  intelligently  understood,  the  utilization 
of  chemical  force  was  practically  unknown  100  years  ago.  The 
wonderful  industrial  utilization  of  chemistry  is  very  modern. 
Photography,  the  x-ray,  the  telephone,  the  phonograph,  etc.,  are 
so  recent  that  some  of  the  readers  of  these  pages  remember  when 
they  were  not. 

In  physiology  the  function  of  the  sex-cells,  the  mystery  of  the 
sex-elements  in  the  processes  of  begetting  and  conceiving,  was 
not  fully  understood  forty  years  ago;  probably,  is  not  yet  cor- 
rectly understood.  I  graduated  as  a  physician  from  Bellevue 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  37 

Medical  College  in  the  same  year  that  Darwin  published  his  work 
on  the  Descent  of  Man;  the  "Conflict  between  Science  and  Reli- 
gion" which  ensued,  was  fought  out  and  the  truth  of  the  theory 
of  evolution  was  established  within  the  period  of  my  professional 
career.  And  with  this  victory  of  human  thought  many  supersti- 
tions faded  away. 

Religious  tolerance  is  a  thing  of  so  modern  introduction  that 
it  has  not  yet  been  established  fully  everywhere. 

But  little  more  than  100  years  ago  the  Inquisition  in  Spain* 
and  its  colonies  still  imprisoned  and  tortured  and  burnt  at  the 
stake  people  who  differed  in  their  religious  convictions  from  the 
established  church;  and  persecutions  and  killings  for  religion's 
sake  are  still  of  daily  occurrence  in  Russian  and  Turkish  Europe 
and  in  Asia. 

The  doctrine  of  the  equality  before  the  law  of  all  citizens 
got  its  first  impetus  in  the  War  of  the  Revolution  of  the  Amer- 
ican Colonies  against  England,  and  the  French  Revolution,  to- 
wards the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

But  the  recognition  of  .the  equality  of  woman  Avith  man  has 
not  yet  been  accomplished,  except  in  some  states  of  our  union, 
although  gratifying  progress  has  been  made.  The  Biblical  handi- 
caps, of  Asiatic  origin,  still  rest  as  a  curse  on  the  female  sex,  and 
only  within  the  last  few  years  have  some  of  the  Protestant 
churches  commenced  to  give  woman  some  recognition  in  the  man- 
agement of  church  affairs. 

The  admission  of  women  to  the  higher  educational  institu- 
tions of  learning — co-education — is  of  quite  recent  date. 

When  I  went  to  the  public  schools,  in  my  younger  days,  puri- 
tanical notions  still  prevailed  to  the  extent  that  co-education  in 
the  schools,  except  in  the  primary  classes,  was  not  tolerated ;  girls 
did  not  go  to  school  with  boys,  nor  women  to  colleges  or  universi- 
ties with  men. 

Now,  more  girls  graduate  from  high  school  than  boys,  and 
women  are  freely  admitted  to  our  colleges  and  universities.  Prac- 
tically all  the  professions  are  open  to  women,  and  the  philanthro- 
pies and  charities  are  largely  under  their  control.  Nine-tenths  of 
the  teachers  in  our  schools  are  women,  and  less  than  one-tenth  of 
our  criminals  are  women. 


*The   Inquisition   was   not   finally   abolished    in    Spain   until   the   year    1814. 


38  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

Mankind  is  but  just  on  the  threshold  of  its  intellectual  accom- 
plishments. Geologists  say  that  present  conditions  in  sustaining 
human  life  will  probably  be  maintained  for  at  least  three  millions 
of  years  more.  We  are  but  infants  in  the  evolution  of  thought; 
a  great  awakening  of  human  conscience  is  taking  place,  and  super- 
stitions and  prejudices  are  rapidly  disappearing. 

The  world  has  just  been  engaged  in  the  most  gigantic  conflict 
of  all  time,  fighting  to  save  the  liberties  of  all  the  people  from  the 
autocratic  power  of  an  ambitious  ruler.  Democracy  has  been  vic- 
torious; and  the  world  will  be  a  better  place  to  live  in  when 
peace  has  been  fully  restored. 

What  will  the  future  bring?  No  one  can  tell  all  the  bene- 
fits that  will  accrue  to  mankind;  but  two  conditions  are  clearly 
foreshadowed — the  Equality  of  Man  and  Woman,  and  Freedom 
of  Thought  and  Conscience.  To  take  our  parts  intelligently  in 
the  further  development  of  mankind,  men  and  women  must 

Dare  to  Know! 
"Sapere  Aude!" 

(Horace.) 

NATURE  OF  SEX 

Until  comparatively  recently  it  was  thought  improper  to  de- 
vote any  study  to  the  sexual  characteristics  of  human  beings; 
pruriency  went  so  far  as  to  set  the  phenomena  of  sex  outside  the 
scope  of  legitimate  investigation,  and  men  who  gave  thought  and 
study  to  this  subject  were  looked  on  askance  and  with  suspicion, 
and  their  work  was  often  submitted  to  ignorant  and  prejudiced 
moral  censors,  who,  by  their  unfair  actions,  added  to  the  obloquy 
under  Avhich  this  subject  rested. 

"The  problem  of  the  origin  of  sex  has  been  so  much  shirked 
and  naturalists  have  beaten  so  much  about  the  bush  in  seeking 
to  solve  it,  because,  in  ordinary  life  for  various  reasons,  mainly 
false,  it  is  customary  to  mark  off  the  reproductive  and  sexual 
functions  as  facts  per  se.  Modesty  defeats  itself  in  pruriency 
and  good  taste  runs  to  the  extreme  of  putting  a  premium  on 
ignorance." 

What  is  sex?  There  arc  still  many  mysteries  to  be  solved 
before  this  question  can  be  fully  answered;  even  now,  with  the 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  39 

riddles  of  sex  and  heredity  the  subject  of  study  of  hundreds  of 
learned  men  and  investigators,  the  inmost  secrets  of  life,  sex  and 
heredity  are  but  imperfectly  understood.  Yet  it  will  prove  in- 
teresting to  trace  the  history  of  sex,  both  in  the  geological  rec- 
ords and  in  the  written  records  of  mankind. 

The  Bible  implies  that  sex  is  the  most  God-like  attribute  of 
humanity.  A  class  in  catechism,  in  a  Sunday  school,  had  been 
drilled  for  a  public  examination;  unfortunately,  the  absence  of 
one  boy  interfered  with  the  regular  sequence  of  the  answers  as 
pre-arranged.  Said  the  teacher  to  the  first  boy — "Who  made 
you?"  and  the  boy  answered  "My  daddy!"  The  horrified  teacher 
corrected:  "No,  no,  God  made  you."  "Please,  teacher,"  said 
the  pupil,  "the  boy  whom  God  made,  is  absent;  he's  sick."  Now 
this  boy  gave  the  answer  that  has  been  given  by  mankind  for 
thousands  of  years,  so  much  so,  that  ancestor-worship,  or  parent- 
worship,  is  the  basis  of  many,  if  not  most,  religions.  Mankind 
has  always  attributed  creation,  genesis,  to  its  parents,  and  in 
early  times  the  father  was  given  full  credit  for  this  act.  Hence 
all  sacred  writings  or  bibles,  devoted  much  attention  to  the  sex- 
ual relationships  of  humankind. 

We  read  in  Genesis  (ch.  i,  v.  27)  "So  God  created  man  in  his 
own  image,  in  the  image  of  God  created  he  him ;  male  and  female 
created  he  them."  The  most  God-like  attribute  of  man  appeared 
to  the  writer  of  Genesis  (generally  supposed  to  have  been  Moses) 
to  have  been  the  power  of  creation,  or  pro-creation.  Man  is  like 
God  in  this,  that  he  has  the  power  of  creating  human  beings. 

The  Lord  is  represented  as  having  taken  extra  precautions 
that  man  should  not  become  immortal ;  there  were  in  the  Garden 
of  Eden  two  trees,  the  "tree  of  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,"  and 
the  "tree  of  life;"  and  man  was  forbidden  to  eat  of  the  fruits  of 
either  (Gen.  ii,  9).  If  we  may  believe  Adam  (Gen.  iii,  12),  he 
was  solicited  by  his  wife  to  eat  of  the  fruit  of  the  "tree  of  knowl- 
edge of  good  and  evil;"  Adam  did,  what  in  our  days  we  would 
call,  "hiding  behind  his  wife's  skirts,"  only,  in  his  case,  we  can 
not  say  so,  because  Eve  wore  no  petticoats.  But  the  eating  of  this 
fruit  had  the  curious  effect  (Gen.  iii,  7)  that  "the  eyes  of  both 
were  opened  and  they  knew  that  they  were  naked ;  and  they  sewed 
fig-leaves  together  and  made  themselves  aprons."  In  an  early 
edition  of  the  English  Bible  the  word  "aprons"  was  translated 
"breeches;"  this  edition  of  the  Bible  is  known  among  bibliophiles 


40  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

as  the  ''Breeches  Bible."  "And  the  Lord  said  (apparently  to 
his  companions,  the  other  gods?),  Behold,  the  man  is  become  as 
one  of  us,  to  know  good  and  evil.  And  now,  lest  he  put  forth  his 
hand  and  take  also  of  the  tree  of  life,  and  eat,  and  live  forever '  '• 
(Gen.  iii,  22)  "he  drove  him  out  of  the  garden,  and  he  placed 
cherubims  and  a  flaming  sword  which  turned  every  way,  to  keep 
the  way  of  the  tree  of  life"  (Gen.  iii,  24). 

The  result  was,  that  as  Adam  and  Eve  were  prevented  from 
eating  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  life,  eventually  they  had  to  die. 
We  read  in  the  fifth  chapter  of  Genesis,  1-5  verses:  "This  is  the 
book  of  generations  of  Adam:  In  the  day  that  God  created 
man,  in  the  likeness  of  God  made  he  him.  Male  and  female  cre- 
ated he  them,  and  he  called  their  name  Adam.  *  *  *  and  Adam 
begat  a  son  in  his  own  likeness,  after  his  image;  and  called  his 
name  Seth  *  *  *  an(j  he  begat  sons  and  daughters  *  *  * 
and  he  died." 

Note  the  similarity  of  the  expression  "in  his  own  likeness" 
as  referring  to  creation  by  God  as  well  as  by  Adam.  Note  also 
the  sequence  of  all  nature' — "he  begat  *  *  *  and  fa  died." 
That  is  the  everlasting  monotonous  round  of  life. 

"The  world  will  turn  when  we  are  earth, 
As  though  we  had  not  come  nor  gone ; 
There  was  no  lack  before  our  birth, 
When  we  are  gone  there  will  be  none." 

(Omar  Khayyam.) 

We  have  already  learned  that  the  Hindu  Trimurti  consists  of 
Brahma,  the  Creator,  Vishnu  the  Preserver,  and  Siva  the  De- 
stroyer. Siva  is  now  the  main  deity  in  India,  and  his  function  of 
destroying  is  supposed  to  include  or  necessitate  the  function  of 
creating;  he  is  therefore  worshipped  in  the  form  of  a  phallus,  the 
image  of  the  male  sexual  organs,  or  the  male  trinity  of  penis  and 
two  testicles.  But  creation  implies  death,  and  death  implies  re- 
placement, or  re-creation,  procreation,  reproduction. 

Death  has  been  the  goal  as  well  as  the  dread  of  man  since 
death  existed — which  was  always  since  life  began.  There  is  no 
life  without  death  and  no  death  without  life. 

"Death,  so-called,  is  a  thing  which  makes  men  weep, 
And  yet  a  third  of  life  is  passed  in  sleep." 

(Byron,  in  Don  Juan.) 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  41 

*    *    *    "All  that  tread 
The  globe  are  hut  a  handful  to  the  tribes 
That  slumber  in  its  bosom." 

(Bryant,  Thanatopsis.) 

"Some  men  make  womanish  complaint  that  it  is  a  great  mis- 
fortune to  die  before  our  time.  I  would  ask,  what  time?  Is  it 
that  of  Nature?  But  she,  indeed,  has  lent  us  life  as  we  do  a  sum 
of  money,  only,  no  certain  day  is  fixed  for  payment.  What  reason 
then  to  complain  if  she  demands  it  at  pleasure,  since  it  was  on 
this  condition  that  you  received  it."  (Cicero.) 

Death  is  the  inevitable  fate  of  all — we  die;  but  others  take 
our  places ;  life  ceases  not  on  earth,  for  to  obey  the  first  command 
in  the  Bible — "Be  fruitful  and  multiply  and  replenish  the  earth" 
is  the  most  imperative  instinct  and  impulse  in  every  living  being ; 
reproduction  is  as  imperative  an  obligation  on  the  race,  as  death 
is  an  imperative  destiny  for  the  individual,  and  so  the  race  con- 
tinues while  the  individuals  come  and  go. 

The  Psalmist  truly  says:  "What  man  is  he  that  liveth,  and 
shall  not  see  death?  Shall  he  deliver  his  soul  from  the  hand  of 
the  grave  ?  Selah. "  —  ( Ps.  Ixxxix,  48. ) 

Death  among  primitive  men  has  probably  always  been  con- 
sidered as  the  result  of  violence,  either  at  the  hands  of  human  or 
animal  enemies,  or  as  the  action  of  hurtful  demons  or  death- 
angels. 

As  the  poet  Longfellow  wrote : 

"There  is  a  Reaper  whose  name  is  Death 

And  with  his  sickle  keen 
He  reaps  the  bearded  grain  at  a  breath 
And  the  flowers  that  grow7  between." 

The  Bible  ascribes  death  to  a  death-angel;  (Rev.  vi,  8)  "And 
I  looked,  and  behold,  a  pale  horse;  and  his  name  that  sat  on  him 
was  Death  *  and  power  was  given  to  kill  with  sword,  and 

with  hunger,  and  with  death"  *  *  *  (Fig.  10). 

Again:  (II  Samuel,  ch.  xxiv,  15-16)  "So  the  Lord  sent  a  pes- 
tilence upon  Israel  *  and  when  the  angel  stretched  out 
his  hand  upon  Jerusalem  to  destroy  it,  the  Lord  repented  him 
of  the  evil,  and  said  to  the  angel  that  destroyed  the  people,  It 
is  enough;  stay  now  thy  hand." 


42 


SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 


Fig.   10. — "Deatli,"   from   Dore's   Bible   illustrations.      According   to   the   Apocalypse. 


Fig.      11. — •"  Death-Angel, "      from  Fig.      12. — "Charon     Bowing     Souls 

Dore's   Bible   illustrations.  Over  the   Styx,"   from   Temple   of  the 

Muses,  XVIII  Century. 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP  43 

In  the  year  790  B.C.  Sennacherib  besieged  Jerusalem.  In  an- 
swer to  the  prayers  of  the  Jews,  the  Lord's  "angel"  (a  pesti- 
lence) visited  the  enemy's  camp  and  slew  185,000  Assyrians  (Fig. 
11),  as  related  in  the  Second  Book  of  Kings:  "And  it  came  to 
pass  that  night,  that  the  angel  of  the  Lord  went  out  and  smote  in 
the  camp  of  the  Assyrians  a  hundred  fourscore  and  five  thousand ; 
and  when  they  arose  in  the  morning,  behold,  they  were  all  dead 
corpses."  (II  Kings,  xix,  35.) 

In  some  countries  or  religions  death  was  looked  upon  as  a 
journey  to  another  world;  thus,  in  Egypt,  in  the  "Book  of  the 
Dead,"  a  ship  is  figured,  carrying  the  souls  to  the  other  world. 


Fig.  13. — "Clinron's   Ferry;"   illustration   to   Dante's   Inferno,   by   Dore. 

The  Greeks  thought  that  the  souls  of  the  dead  were  ferried 
by  Charon  over  the  river  Styx,  which  was  made  up  of  all  the  tears 
that  had  been  shed  in  the  world;  the  same  origin  is  also  ascribed 
to  the  river  Acheron.  The  Styx  was  a  sacred  river  among  the 
Greeks,  as  the  Ganges  is  among  the  Hindus  or  the  Nile,  in  ancient 
times,  to  the  Egyptians,  and  they  swore  "by  Styx." 

Charon  charged  a  fee  for  his  services  as  ferryman,  so  that, 
when  the  Greeks  buried  anyone  they  provided  him  with  a  small 
coin  which  was  placed  in  his  hand,  or  under  his  tongue,  so  that 
he  might  not  be  detained  at  the  bank  of  that  dreaded  river 
(Fig.  12). 

If  a  soul  had  no  coin  to  pay  his  fare,  it  was  detained  for  one- 


44  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

hundred  years,  as  shown  in  the  illustration  from  the  "Temple 
of  the  Muses"  published  in  the  XVIII  Century.  From  this  idea, 
or  simultaneously  with  it,  was  probably  evolved  the  theory  of 
purgatory,  believed  in  by  many  people.  The  belief  in  purgatory, 
adapted  from  the  Greeks,  was  made  an  article  of  faith  for  Catho- 
lics by  Pope  Gregory  the  Great,  about  500  A.D. 

Dante  adopted  this  Pagan  idea  about  Charon  and  featured 
it  in  his  Divine  Comedy;  in  Dorc's  illustrations  to  this  work,  this 
ferrying  of  the  souls  over  the  river  was  figured  as  here  shown 
(Fig.  13). 

Together  with  many  other  features  of  Paganism,  Christianity 
also  appropriated  this  idea,  and  so-called  "gospel  hymns"  or 
"revival  hymns"  utilize  it  in  various  versions. 

When  the  poet  Lamb  wrote,  in  his  poem  "Hester:" 

******     "Gone  before 
To  that  unknown  and  silent  shore," 

he  was  justified  in  doing  so,  because  poets  always  did  utilize 
Pagan  ideas  when  they  were  beautiful. 

But  when,  in  modern  hymnology,  we  find  this  idea  adopted, 
as  in  the  gospel  hymn: 

"We  are  waiting  by  the  river 

We  are  watching  by  the  shore, 
Only  waiting  for  the  boatman 
Soon  He'll  come  and  row  us  o'er. 

"Though  the  mist  hang  o'er  the  river 

And  its  billows  loudly  roar 
Yet  we  hear  the  song  of  angels 
Wafted  from  the  other  shore." 

we  recognize  it  as  a  purely  Greek  Pagan  metaphor,  which  can 
not  be  excused  or  justified  by  any  passage  from  the  Bible.  But 
modern  revivalists  have  seized  on  the  idea  as  a  telling  one,  and 
in  their  songs  as  well  as  in  their  talks  they  work  on  these  lines 
in  endless  modifications. 

"Shall  we  meet  beyond  the  river 
Where  the  surges  cease  to  roll, 
Where  in  all  the  bright  forever 
Sorrow  ne'er  shall  press  the  soul? 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  45 

''Shall  we  meet  in  that  blest  harbor 
When  our  stormy  voyage  is  o'er, 
Shall  we  meet  and  cast  the  anchor 
By  the  fair  celestial  shore! 

"Shall  we  meet,  shall  we  meet, 
Shall  we  meet  beyond  the  river 
Shall  we  meet  beyond  the  river 
Where  the  surges  cease  to  roll?" 

The  same  motif  is  found  in  such  songs  as : 

"Safe  in  the  Arms  of  Jesus;" 

"We  Shall  Meet  Beyond  the  River,  Bye  and  Bye;" 
"The  Home  Over  There;" 
"The  Beautiful  River;"  or 
"That  Shining  Shore"— with  its  chorus: 
"For  we  stand  on  Jordan's  strand, 
Our  friends  are  passing  over,"  etc. 

It  is  Greek  Paganism,  slightly  modified  of  course,  to  suit  the 
requirements,  but  essentially  the  myth  of  Charon,  the  son  of  Ere- 
bus and  Night  (Nox)  rowing  the  Manes  or  ghosts  of  the  departed 
over  the  Styx,  to  the  judgment  seat  of  Aeacus,  Rhadamanthus  and 
Minos,  the  Judges  of  the  Infernal  Regions. 

Among  savage  and  barbarous  nations  diseases  and  death  are 
often  attributed  to  the  malevolent  influence  of  evil  spirits.  In 
some  cases  these  evil  powers  are  supposed  to  be  the  ghosts  of  the 
dead,  sometimes,  to  be  imps  or  devils  under  the  command  of 
Satan  or  the  Devil,  who  is  a  reality  to  even  many  of  our  civilized 
Christians.  But  in  many  cases  these  disease-demons  are  fantas- 
tic and  grotesque  creations  of  the  imagination  as,  for  instance, 
disease-demons  of  the  Bohemian  gypsies.  Among  some  people, 
these  demons  are  imagined  as  supernatural  beings,  endowed  with 
special  functions;  for  instance,  among  some  Malay  tribes  there 
are  demons  that  produce  smallpox,  others  that  produce  glandu- 
lar swellings,  abscesses,  bubonic  plague,  etc. 

We  will  return  to  this  subject  later  on,  simply  stating  now 
that  the  belief  in  evil  spirits  and  in  their  power  of  producing  sick- 
ness and  death  is  very  widely  held,  even  among  Christians. 

Closely  connected  with  the  belief  in  evil  demons  is  the  belief 


46  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

in  witchcraft,  a  belief  which  is  based  on  the  Bible  and  must  there- 
fore, in  the  opinion  of  millions  of  people,  be  true. 

In  the  Second  Book  of  Chronicles,  ch.  xxxiii,  sixth  verse,  we 
are  told  of  Manasseh  that  "he  caused  his  children  to  pass  through 
the  fire  in  the  valley  of  the  son  of  Hinnom :  also  he  observed  times 
and  used  enchantments  and  used  witchcraft  and  dealt  with  a  fa- 
miliar spirit  and  with  wizards."  And  in  Exodus  (xxii,  18)  we 
read:  "Thou  shalt  not  suffer  a  witch  to  live."  Or  in  Deuter- 
onomy: (xviii,  10)  "There  shall  not  be  found  among  you  any  one 
that  maketh  his  son  or  his  daughter  to  pass  through  the  fire,  or 
that  useth  divination,  or  an  observer  of  times,  or  an  enchanter, 
or  a  witch." 

In  Exodus  we  are  told  that  God  had  a  talk  with  Moses  in 
which  he  taught  him  to  do  several  miracles  or  tricks  by  witch- 
craft. (Ex.  vii,  1  to  12)  "And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  See,  I 
have  made  thee  a  god  to  Pharaoh;  and  Aaron,  thy  brother  shall 
be  thy  prophet  *  *  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  and 
unto  Aaron,  saying,  When  Pharaoh  shall  speak  unto  you,  say- 
ing, Show  a  miracle  for  you,  then  thou  shalt  say  unto  Aaron,  Take 
thy  rod  and  cast  it  before  Pharaoh,  and  it  shall  become  a  serpent. 
And  Moses  and  Aaron  went  in  unto  Pharaoh  *  *  *  and  Aaron 
cast  down  his  rod  before  Pharaoh  and  before  his  servants,  and 
it  became  a  serpent.  Then  Pharaoh  also  called  the  wise  men  and 
the  sorcerers:  now  the  magicians  of  Egypt  they  also  did  in  like 
manner  with  their  enchantments.  For  they  cast  down  every  man 
his  rod,  and  they  became  serpents:  but  Aaron's  rod  swallowed  up 
their  rods." 

To  base  this  belief  in  witchcraft  on  the  Bible,  as  has  been 
done  and  is  being  done,  may  be  like  the  argument  of  the  little  boy, 
who  made  some  assertion  and  was  asked  to  mention  his  authority 
for  the  statement;  he  clinched  all  argument  in  this  manner:  "My 
mother  said  so,  and  when  she  says  anything  is  so,  it  is  so,  even 
if  it  isn't  so." 

There  is  an  almost  universal  belief  among  the  uneducated, 
that  persons  can  "sell  their  souls"  to  a  devil  or  demon  and  get 
in  return  the  power  of  doing  supernatural  or  magical  things,  es- 
pecially the  power  to  produce  sickness  or  death,  or  of  "bewitch- 
ing" any  one.  A  prominent  feature  of  such  a  compact  generally 
is  the  signature  of  the  human  "party  of  the  first  part"  in  his 
own  blood. 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  47 

A  typical  case  of  such  belief  in  the  Christian  church  is  the 
following,  found  in  a  secular  encyclopedic  history  of  the  world,  of 
the  18th  century.  It  is  the  case  of  a  nun,  Mary  Kenata  Sengerin, 
who  was  born  at  Massan,  near  Munich,  Bavaria;  she  became  a 
nun  when  she  was  19  years  of  age  and  at  the  time  of  the  occur- 
rence of  the  tragedy  I  am  about  to  relate  (in  1751)  she  had  been 
a  nun  for  50  years.  She  had  lived  a  life  of  great  piety  and  vir- 
tue during  these  50  years  and  was  held  in  great  good  repute. 
But  "inwardly,"  as  it  appeared  from  the  records  of  her  trial  as 
a  witch,  "she  was  the  slave  of  a  hellish  spirit"  and  had  for  ten 
years  afflicted  the  other  nuns  with  much  bodily  ailment  and  suf- 
fering, by  breathing  on  them. 

One  of  the  other  nuns  complained  to  the  authorities  of  the 
establishment  or  nunnery  and  a'ccused  Sister  Mary  of  being  a 
witch;  she  was  arrested  and  in  her  room  were  found  some  oint- 
ment, some  witch-herbs,  a  yellow  skirt,  and  also  some  cats.  She 
was  "compelled  to  undergo  an  interrogation,"  which  probably 
means  that  she  was  tortured,  and  when  the  evil  spirits  were  driven 
from  her  by  the  exorcisms  of  the  priests,  these  demons  confessed 
that  they  had  served  the  accused  nun,  who  was  a  witch.  She  also 
admitted  that  the  cats  in  her  room  were  hellish  spirits. 

Her  trial  took  place  at  Wuerzburg,  in  1751 ;  she  was  duly  con- 
victed of  being  a  witch,  and  was  publicly  beheaded  and  her  body 
was  burned  to  ashes. 

Such  was  but  one  of  many,  many  thousands  of  cases  of  sim- 
ilar kind,  which  took  place  while  the  delusion  of  belief  in  witch- 
craft lasted  in  the  minds  of  the  people.. 

If  among  our  forefathers,  but  little  over  a  century  and  a  half 
ago,  such  foolish  notions  existed,  can  we  be  surprised  that  they 
were  and  are  still  common  among  less  civilized  peoples? 

Even  among  physicians  disease  and  death  was  not  always 
recognized  as  the  result  of  perfectly  natural  processes,  as  we 
learn  from  the  History  of  Medicine;  even  here,  demons  and  life 
principles,  etc.,  were  invoked  to  explain  both  life  and  death. 

But  death,  as  the  inevitable  fate  of  most  humankind  was  rec- 
ognized as  sure — "Sure  as  Fate." 

It  is  true  there  are  a  few  cases  mentioned  in  the  Bible,  of 
people  ivho  did  not  die;  "Enoch  was  translated,  that  he  should 
not  see  death"  (Hebrews,  xi,  5);  or  in  II  Kings,  ii,  11,  "Elijah 
went  up  by  a  whirlwind  into  heaven." 


48 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


To  some,  these  cases  appear  well  authenticated;  to  others, 
they  are  not  quite  so  convincing. 

But  most  individuals  must  die;  to  count  on  being  ''trans- 
lated" is  too  uncertain,  and  if  all  must  die,  the  world  would  be- 
come depopulated  if  Siva,  or  powers  like  him,  did  not  attend  to 
reproduction. 

What  Is  Reproduction? 

We  may  cut  sponges  or  sea  anemones  into  fragments  and  put 
them  back  into  their  native  waters,  and  each  piece  will  develop 


Fig.  14. — Upper  row,  plasmodia  of  amoeba;  lower  row,  plasmodium  dividing  into  two 

amoeba. 

into  a  perfect  specimen  of  its  kind;  or  in  spading  our  garden  we 
may  accidentally  cut  a  worm  in  two — the  tail  end  will  produce  a 
new  head  and  the  head  end  will  produce  a  new  tail,  and  we  have 
two  individuals.  Possibly  we  should  not  call  them  new  individ- 
uals, but  they  are  as  good  as  new — for  there  are  now  two  individ- 
uals where  there  was  only  one  before ;  what  we  have  accomplished 
by  accident  or  design  is  the  usual  method  of  reproduction  in  many 
animals  and  plants  in  which  division  takes  place  spontaneously. 
We  do  not  know  just  what  "life"  is;  but  we  know  its  mani- 
festations: Motion,  groivth,  sensation  and  self-preservation.  Hun- 
ger is  one  form  of  the  impulse  of  self-preservation  and  is  insep- 


SEX    AND   SEX    WORSHIP 


49 


arable  from  life;  from  the  one-celled  animal  or  plant  to  the  most 
complex  organism,  all  eat  or  assimilate  food,  digest,  grow  and 
multiply;  but  growth  is  limited  between  certain  comparatively 
narrow  bounds ;  the  simplest  particle  of  protoplasm,  the  simplest 
cell,  when  it  has  reached  its  normal  limit  of  growth,  divides  into 
two  or  more. 

In  Fig.  14  we  see  an  amoeba  cell  (upper  left) ;  in  the  next 
figure  we  see  commencing  division  of  the  nucleus;  in  the  third, 
division  commences  by  constricting;  then  this  process  is  carried 
further  until  finally  the  two  halves  have  separated  and  there  are 
two  amoeba. 


Fig.  15. — Division  of  desmids,  above;  of  cells,  below. 

Cell-division  is  here  shown  (Fig.  15)  in  simple  cells  (lower) 
as  well  as  in  desmids  (upper).  Unicellular  organisms  of  all  kinds, 
as  \vell  as  many  large  and  comparatively  complex  organisms, 
when  they  become  too  large  for  one  individual,  divide  into  two. 
But  the  resulting  forms  resemble  each  other;  they  can  not  be  dis- 
tinguished as  male  and  female.  This  mode  of  reproduction  is 
called  asexual,  or  without  sex.  A  similar  process,  but  not  as 
complete,  is  that  by  which  some  of  the  lower  forms  of  life  can 
reproduce  lost  or  accidentally  destroyed  parts;  thus,  a  snail  hav- 
ing one  of  its  eyes  cut  off,  will  have  a  new  eye  grow  out;  or  a  lob- 
ster, losing  a  claw,  will  have  another  claw  grow. 

In  the  middle  ages,  when  human  credulity  gave  credence  to 


50  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

many  preposterous  tales,  the  following  story  found  its  way  into 
a  secular  work  on  history.  In  the  VIII  Century  Johannis  Damas- 
ceni,  a  soldier  in  one  of  the  crusades,  was  captured  by  the  Sara- 
cens, and  his  right  hand  was  hewn  off  by  order  of  one  of  the  Sara- 
cen kings.  He  prayed  to  Mary,  mother  of  God,  and  a  new  hand 
grew,  leaving  only  a  small  red  scar  around  the  arm  at  the  point 
where  it  grew.  He  was  canonized  for  his  faith,  as  evidenced  by 
his  prayer  and  its  fulfilment,  and  is  now  numbered  among  the 
saints. 

In  cases  of  the  restoration  of  lost  parts  it  is  not  complete 
reproduction,  but  only  partial,  for  while  the  injured  individual 
grows  out  a  new  part,  the  severed  part  does  not  reproduce  a  new 
individual.  But,  of  course,  in  higher  organisms,  the  severed  part 


Fig.  16. — Miraculous  reproduction  of  a  hand;  from  a  secular  history  of  1740.    Madonna 

in  a  hairy  door  of  life. 

is  not  reproduced.  Certain  organs  are  called  "vital"  if  injury 
to  them,  or  severance,  produce  death,  while  others  are  "non- 
vital"  because  removal  of  them  does  not  affect  life,  or  general 
health,  but  merely  entails  discomfort  or  disability. 

If  we  place  a  leaf  of  Bryophyllum*  on  moist  sand,  little  buds 
form  on  its  margin  (Fig.  17) ;  as  the  leaf  decays  these  buds  be- 
come separated  into  individual  plants;  this  is  reproduction  "by 
budding."  Buds  may  break  off  from  the  parent  animal  or  plant 
and  become  independent  individuals,  and  this  method  of  repro- 
duction is  common  in  many  animals,  as  zoophytes,  corals,  etc., 
as  well  as  in  many  plants. 

*A  plant  of  the  family  of  house-leeks;  has  no  common  Knglish  name,  except  that  in  Bermuda 
it  is  known  as  "Life-plant." 


SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP  51 

The  "layering"  of  grapevines  or  raspberry  plants,  the  plant- 
ing of  slips  of  fuchsia  or  geranium,  the  placing  of  a  twig  of  ole- 
ander in  a  bottle  of  water,  and  producing  a  new  plant  thereby, 
is  practically  a  form  of  reproduction  by  budding  and  we  might 
even  go  further  and  include  here  the  grafting  of  a  scion  on  an- 
other plant  as  a  modification  of  this  method  of  reproduction.  The 
bud  or  slip  or  scion  being  a  part  of  the  parent  plant,  there  will  be 
a  growth  exactly  resembling  the  parent  stock;  the  resulting  new 
individual  will  show  only  such  variations  as  may  be  produced  by 


Fig.  17. — Leaf  of  Bryophyllum  forming  buds  on  its  margin  which  become  independent 

plants  on  decay  of  the  leaf. 


more  or  less  favorable  environment,  but  no  essential  or  hered- 
itary variation  can  take  place.  This  reproduction  is  also  asexual 
or  without  sex. 

In  the  protozoa  we  find  that  while  for  many  generations  the 
organisms  may  divide  and  subdivide  to  form  new  individuals,  a 
time  comes  when  this  power  becomes  less  and  finally  ceases  alto- 
gether, and  this  line  of  the  species  threatens  to  die  out.  Then  two 
or  more  protozoa  approach  one  another  in  obedience  to  an  im- 
perative impulse,  apparently  eat  each  other — "protoplasmic  can- 


52 


SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 


nibalism" — and  coalesce  into  one  large  individual  from  which  the 
species  takes  a  new  start — by  again  dividing.  This  process  is 
called  "conjugation;"  but  we  see  no  difference  between  the  sev- 
eral individuals  taking  part  in  the  process,  and  there  is  no  sex 
in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word,  yet  we  must  recognize  this  as  an 
early  step  in  the  evolution  of  that  wonderful  and  complex  proc- 
ess called  "sexual  reproduction"  in  the  higher  orders  of  beings. 
In  our  illustration  (Fig.  18)  we  see  three  amoeba  unite 
(above)  to  form  a  plasmodium,  and  to  the  right,  a  completed 
large  plasmodium  with  two  new  nuclei,  each  of  which,  with  its 
half  of  the  plasmodium,  will  form  a  new  amoeba.  In  the  lower 
part  of  the  illustration  are  shown  several  individuals  of  Pan- 


Fig.  IS. — Upper  row,  three  amoebae  uniting  to  form  a  plasmodium;  lower  row,  con- 
jugation  of   two   pandorinae. 

dorina,  the  conjugation  and  coalescence  of  two  individuals  into  a 
new  individual,  from  which  the  usual  form  of  reproduction  by 
fission  or  division  starts  again. 

Every  organism  is  hungry,  but  some  possess  the  power  of 
assimilating  food  and  of  elaborating  it  into  complex  organic  com- 
pounds in  a  more  marked  degree  than  others;  a  cell  of  this  kind 
is  constructive ;  assimilation  exceeds  waste ;  income  is  larger  than 
expense  and  a  surplus  accumulates,  the  cell  grows  large  and  round, 
and  not  needing  to  exert  itself  to  live,  it  becomes  sluggish  and 
quiescent.  In  the  gradual  differentiation  between  the  cells  taking 
part  in  the  process  of  conjugation  (Fig.  19),  cells  having  these 
characteristics  are  said  to  be  "anabolic;"  this  process  of  cell- 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  53 

growth  is  called  "anabolism;"  the  cell  when  completely  differen- 
tiated, is  an  ovum — the  female  rudimentary  unit.  The  cell  is 
feminine. 

In  other  cells  growth  is  retarded,  the  power  of  assimilating 
food  and  elaborating  it  into  more  complex  organic  compounds  is 
weakened;  waste  outruns  assimilation;  the  cell  lives  beyond  its 
means,  for  it  uses  up  more  than  it  gathers;  its  organic  constitu- 
ents tend  to  disorganization  and  death,  to  a  reduction  of  its  con- 
stituents to  their  elementary  condition.  The  cell  is  partially 
starved  and  it  must  exert  itself  to  maintain  life;  it  therefore  as- 
sumes a  shape  which  enables  it  to  hustle  for  a  living,  or  at  least, 
to  hurry  to  accomplish  its  life  mission  before  it  loses  its  power  to 


Highest  forms  of  life. 

Jex.ua! . 


Lowest  -form?  of-Cife. 
Cisexuai. 


Fig.  19. — The  evolution  of   sex   from  asexual  reproduction. 

do  this ;  it  assumes  a  shape  that  admits  of  active  locomotion.  We 
call  such  a  condition  "katabolism;"  such  a  cell,  when  fully  dif- 
ferentiated, constitutes  the  male  rudimentary  unit — the  sperma- 
tozoon; the  cell  is  masculine. 

In  the  diagram,  starting  with  the  conjugation  of  two  equal 
cells,  as  in  the  amoeba,  constituting  "asexual"  reproduction,  we 
see  a  gradual  divergence  in  the  cells  taking  part  in  conjugation 
until  the  cells  are  completely  differentiated  into  the  large  femi- 
nine ovum  and  the  small  male  spermatozoon. 

While  the  ovum  may,  and  in  many  species  and  under  certain 
conditions  does,  develop  into  a  new  being  without  the  cooperation 
of  a  male  cell,  the  latter  is  by  itself  utterly  unable  to  produce  any- 


54  SEX    AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

thing;  the  male  spermatozoon  is  of  value  only  when  required  by 
the  female  cell  or  ovum;  otherwise  its  katabolic  tendency  asserts 
itself  and  the  cell  perishes;  death  results — never  reproduction. 
When  the  small  and  active  spermatozoon  comes  into  contact 
with  an  ovum  of  the  same  species,  it  is  absorbed  by  the  latter  and 
the  coalescence  of  the  two  nuclei  of  these  two  cells  starts  a  devel- 
opment in  the  ovum  which  results  in  the  formation  of  a  new  indi- 
vidual which  partakes  of  the  natures  of  the  two  parent  cells.  We 
must  construe  literally  what  Jesus  said  of  this  matter:  ''Have 
ye  not  read,  that  he  which  made  them  at  the  beginning,  made  them 
male  and  female;  for  this  cause  shall  a  man  leave  father  and 
mother,  and  shall  cleave  to  his  wife:  and  they  twain  shall  be  one 
flesh.  Wherefore  they  are  no  more  twain,  but  one  flesh."  (Matt, 
xix,  4-6.) 

He  (the  spermatozoon)  and  she  (the  ovum)  coalesce  and  ac- 
tually become  "one  flesh,"  partaking  of  the  natures  of  both  the 
father  and  the  mother.  This  coming  together  of  the  spermato- 
zoon and  ovum  is  called  fertilization,  impregnation,  or  sexual 
reproduction. 

We  understand  now  the  essential  or  fundamental  nature  of 
sex;  the  details  are  being  studied  by  thousands  of  able  investi- 
gators, and  many  of  the  secrets  of  nature,  let  us  hope,  will  be 
made  clear  within  a  few  years.  Meanwhile  the  essence  of  the  na- 
ture of  sex  may  be  apprehended  from  the  facts  just  stated. 

In  the  lowest  forms  of  life  there  is  no  sex,  but  conjugation  of 
several  equal  cells,  as  in  the  amoeba,  where  two  or  several  cells 
form  a  plasmodium;  then  conjugation,  limited  to  two  cells,  but 
yet  without  appreciable  difference  between  them;  next,  conjuga- 
tion between  two  somewhat  dissimilar  cells  or  individuals,  and 
lastly,  a  union,  by  "fertilization"  of  two  completely  differenti- 
ated male  and  female  cells  or  individuals. 

All  excellence  of  character  and  all  loveliness  and  seductiveness 
of  body  serve  but  to  attract  two  individuals  through  love,  in  order 
that  a  spermatozoon  may  come  into  contact  with  an  ovum,  to  pro- 
duce a  new  being. 

"For  Beauty  is  the  bait  which  with  delight 
Doth  man  allure,  for  to  enlarge  his  kind," 

said  the  poet  Spenser,  fully  300  years  ago. 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


55 


Impregnation 

To  make  clear  the  nature  of  fertilization  I  show  here  the 
mode  of  reproduction  of  Peronospora,  a  mould  that  grows  on  the 
potato  and  causes  potato  rot  (Fig.  20).  In  fungi  the  merely  veg- 
etative portion  consists  of  more  or  less  loosely  or  more  or  less 
compactly  matted  threads,  called  the  mycelium.  In  Peronospora 
the  mycelium  consists  of  threadlike  fibers.  The  fructification  con- 
sists of  two  kinds  of  outgrowths  from  these  fibers,  one  a  larger 
round  body,  or  female  organ,  in  which  there  are  one  or  several 
smaller  round  bodies — the  oospheres  or  ova  (eggs) ;  then  there 
is  also  a  slim  male  outgrowth  which  produces  immense  numbers 


Fig.  20. — Sexual  reproduction  in  Pero- 
nospora, a  mould,  above;  ovum  and  an- 
therozoids  of  Fucus,  below. 


Fig.     21. — Cochineal     insects     on 
cactus  leaf;   male  insect  with  wings. 


of  slender  active  cells  called  antherozoids,  which  correspond  to 
the  spermatozoa  of  animals. 

The  male  outgrowth  applies  itself  to  the  side  of  the  female 
organ,  perforates  the  walls  of  the  latter,  enters  it  by  a  tubular 
prolongation,  and  discharges  the  antherozoids  into  it,  bringing 
them  into  contact  with  the  female  cells  or  ova,  the  oospheres,  each 
of  which  becomes  fertilized  by  absorbing  an  antherozoid  by  which 
they  become  changed  into  fertile  spores  that  are  able  to  develop 
into  new  plants. 

We  have  here,  in  one  of  the  lowest  classes  of  plants,  and  one 


56  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

of  the  earliest  forms  of  plants,  a  forecast  of  that  more  complex 
process  which  we  know  as  coition. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  in  even  these  very  lowly  organisms  the 
female  cells  are  passive  and  that  the  activity  necessary  to  bring 
the  male  cells  into  contact  with  the  female  cells  is  exerted  by  the 
male,  or  the  male  organ ;  even  in  these  fungoid  threads  ' '  the 
bride  does  not  seek  the  bridegroom,  but  awaits  his  coming  and 
his  wooing." 

In  the  lower  part  of  the  drawing  are  seen  the  shapes  of  the 
oosphere  or  female  cell  or  ovum  and  the  antherozoids  or  male 
cells  of  bladder-wrack  (Fucus  vesiculosus),  one  of  the  algae. 

In  the  cochineal  insects  (Fig.  21)  we  see  this  difference  of 
sex-disposition  plainly  exemplified.  When  the  eggs  of  these  in- 
sects are  hatched,  about  200  females  are  produced  for  every  one 
male  insect.  The  wingless  females  move  about  sluggishly  on  the 
surface  of  the  leaf  of  the  cactus,  while  the  winged  males  fly  about 
actively  from  one  female  to  another  to  impregnate  them,  which 
having  been  accomplished  their  function  in  life  is  completed  and 
they  die. 

The  females  now  attach  themselves  firmly  to  the  leaf,  appear- 
ing like  so  many  warts,  storing  away  the  anabolic  surplus  of  food 
in  their  bodies  as  carmine,  to  serve  as  food  for  the  developing 
young,  Avho  feed  upon  the  bodies  of  their  mothers  when  the  eggs 
are  hatched. 

We  see  here  again  "a  vivid  emblem  of  what  is  an  average 
truth  throughout  the  world  of  animals — the  preponderating  pas- 
sivity of  the  females  and  the  predominant  activity  of  the  males." 

1 ' Even  in  the  human  species  this  contrast  is  recognized.  Ev- 
ery one  will  admit  that  strenuous  bursts  of  activity  characterize 
men,  especially  in  youth  and  among  the  less  civilized  races ;  while 
patient  continuance  with  less  violent  expenditure  of  energy  is  as 
generally  associated  with  the  work  of  women." 

To  see  this  difference  in  regard  to  sexual  activity  we  need 
but  glance  at  the  behavior  of  the  rooster  among  a  number  of  hens, 
or  of  the  male  pigeon  with  his  mate,  or  of  the  cock  sparrow.  The 
ancient  Romans  had  a  proverb:  "Et  musca  habet  penem,"  "Even 
the  fly  has  a  penis,"  which  corresponds  to  our  modern  saying: 
1  '  They  all  do  it ! "  and  which  shows  this  active  desire  of  the  males 
very  plainly. 

The  difference  in  this  regard  between  males  and  females  of 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  57 

the  human  species  is  seen  in  the  enthusiasm  with  which  men  be- 
come soldiers,  for  which  service  women  are  unfit;  and  on  the 
other  hand  the  exhaustless  patience  with  which  women  act  as 
nurses  in  the  Ked  Cross  hospitals.  There  can  be  no  question  as 
to  the  patriotism  of  either;  both,  in  their  spheres,  are  equally 
loyal,  and  equally  active,  but  their  spheres  of  activity  are  dif- 
ferent. Women  can  not  do  all  the  tasks  of  men,  nor  can  men  do 
the  tasks  of  women ;  nor  did  nature  intend  them  to  do  tasks  con- 
trary to  their  natures. 

Many  of  the  lower  organisms,  especially  plants,  are  capable 
of  producing  both  elements — ova  and  spermatozoa,  or  ova  and 
antherozoids,  or  pollen — such  individuals  are  called  hermaphro- 
dites. In  higher  animal  forms  it  is  more  common  that  one  indi- 
vidual produces  only  ova — it  is  a  female;  others  produce  only 
spermatozoa — they  are  males. 

In  some  species,  of  insects  especially,  the  female  has  the 
power  to  produce  eggs  that  can  be  developed  without  being  fer- 
tilized by  a  spermatozoon.  The  males  in  such  species  seem  to  be 
superfluous;  or  they  are  rudimentary;  or  there  are  no  males  at 
all.  This  latter,  however,  may  be  due  to  the  fact  that  the  forms 
of  males  and  females  of  certain  species  are  so  dissimilar  in  size 
and  shape,  that  the  two  forms  have  as  yet  not  been  recognized  as 
belonging  together. 

When  a  female  produces  eggs  that  hatch  without  being  fer- 
tilized by  a  male,  the  process  of  procreation  is  called  "partheno- 
genesis," which  is  a  compound  Greek  word  signifying  "birth  from 
a  virgin."  This  may  take  place  in  insects,  but  it  is  sometimes 
said  to  have  taken  place  in  much  higher  forms,  as  will  be  men- 
tioned later  on — suffice  it  to  say  here,  that  neither  true  hermaph- 
roditism  or  parthenogenesis  can  occur  in  mammals  or  in  mankind. 

By  referring  back  to  page  5,  the  ancient  views  of  Pliilo  and 
Plato  in  regard  to  a  supposed  condition  of  hermaphroditism  in 
man  will  be  found. 

Another  view,  however,  was  advanced  later  on,  for  Scotus 
(or  Erigena,  IX  Cent.)  taught  that  man  was  originally  sinless 
and  without  sex.  Only  after  the  introduction  of  sin  did  man 
lose  his  spiritual  body  and  acquire  his  animal  nature  with  the 
differentiation  of  sex;  according  to  Scotus  woman  is  the  imperson- 
ation and  embodiment  of  man's  sensuous  and  fallen  nature,  but 
on  the  final  return  of  divine  unity  (in  heaven)  all  distinction  of 


58  SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP 

sex  will  disappear  and  the  original  spiritual  body  will  be  re- 
gained; this  is  probably  premised  on  Mark  xii,  25:  "For  when 
they  shall  rise  from  the  dead,  they  neither  marry,  nor  are  given 
in  marriage  *  *  *  ,"  and  Luke  xx,  35 :"  But  they  which  shall 
be  accounted  worthy  to  obtain  that  world,  and  the  resurrection 
from  the  dead,  neither  marry  nor  are  given  in  marriage." 

Kecently  some  writers  seriously  proposed  the  theory  that  the 
males  and  females  of  today  are  but  the  deteriorated  representa- 
tives of  original  bi-sexual  human  beings,  and  that  hermaphro- 
ditism  is  really  only  a  reversion  in  type  to  that  of  the  "original 
perfect  bisexual  man."  The  authors  of  this  work  say  that  her- 
maphrodites which  are  now  always  sterile,  were  not  always  so 
but  that  there  are  "scientific  records"  that  such  persons  have 
assumed  the  relations  of  both  sexes,  sometimes  acting  as  fathers 
and  then  again  as  mothers. 

Needless  to  say,  the  writer  has  never  met  with  any  * '  scientific 
record"  of  this  kind;  a  case  from  an  old  history  is  quoted  on 
p.  316  to  show  the  credulity  of  the  human  mind.  The  record  of 
science  is  that  hermaphrodites  are  never  bisexually  potent  in  the 
human  race. 

What  is  generally  called  "hermaphroditism"  in  humans  con- 
sists most  commonly  in  an  abnormally  developed  clitoris  which 
may  resemble  a  penis  in  size,  and  may  be  mistaken  for  one,  but 
it  never  is  capable  of  impregnating  a  woman.  In  ancient  times 
castrates  were  called  hermaphrodites  because  while  they  had  the 
general  features  of  men  they  were  used  like  women,  for  coitus 
in  ano,  which  was  once  an  exceedingly  popular  form  of  sexual 
indulgence,  known  as  "Greek  love,"  and  which  is  referred  to  in 
Rom.  i,  27:  "And  likewise  also  the  men,  leaving  the  natural  use 
of  the  woman,  burned  in  their  lust  one  toward  another ;  men  with 
men  working  that  which  is  unseemly  *  *  *  ." 

This  is  as  near  to  a  scientific  record  that  men  have  acted 
both  as  males  and  as  females  as  there  exists;  Nero  was  fond  of 
such  relationships,  but  it  does  not  prove  real  hermaphroditism. 
Julius  Caesar  also  was  addicted  to  "Greek  love." 

When  a  cluster  of  cells  in  an  embryo  which  may  develop 
either  into  a  clitoris  or  into  a  penis  during  uterine  development 
begins  to  differentiate,  it  either  becomes  a  perfect  clitoris,  with 
all  the  other  parts  also  feminine,  or  it  becomes  a  perfect  penis, 
with  all  the  other  parts  also  male,  or  it  may  become  malformed, 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  59 

producing  what  is  miscalled  hermaphroditism ;  but  it  can  not 
develop  into  two  distinct  forms,  clitoris  and  penis  both;  only  one 
or  the  other,  or  imperfect.  So  with  other  parts;  when  they  com- 
mence to  differentiate  their  destiny  becomes  fixed,  as  for  instance, 
they  may  become  ovaries  or  testicles,  but  not  both. 

Atavism  means  reversal  to  ancestral  forms;  the  possibilities 
for  atavisms  were  laid  in  very  early  evolutionary  processes;  for 
instance,  the  possibility  of  having  five  or  six  fingers  on  a  hand 
dates  back  to  the  Silurian  age,  the  age  of  fishes,  when  the  fin  of 
a  fish  developed  into  the  five-fingered  arm  or  limb  of  a  reptile ;  or 
perhaps  even  earlier,  when  the  trilobite  evolved  a  limb,  as  in  the 
pterichthys.  But  the  development  of  most  parts  in  man  origi- 
nated later.  Yet  his  conformation  was  determined  in  evolution 
in  much  earlier  times  than  even  the  mammalian  age;  but  even  in 
those  early  days  of  fishes,  reptiles,  marsupials,  early  mammals, 
etc.,  the  differentiation  of  sex — either  male  or  female  but  not 
both — had  been  fully  established,  and  when  man  appeared  there 
was  no  more  possibility  of  his  having  been  sexless  or  bi-sexual,  than 
there  would  be  of  a  perfect  man  developing  the  form  of  a  Hindu 
god,  with  four  or  six  perfect  arms,  or  of  a  perfect  woman  devel- 
oping into  an  angel  with  four  upper  extremities,  two  arms,  and 
two  feathered  wings.  Neither  was  it  possible  for  a  sexless  race 
to  be  produced  from  mammals  in  whom  sex  differentiation  was 
complete. 

Only  those  who  believe  in  special  acts  of  creation  can  imagine 
a  possibility  of  sexless  or  bi-sexual  human  ancestors ;  no  scientist 
can  give  credence  to  such  an  absurd  proposition. 

When  two-headed  monstrosities,  and  similar  foetal  products 
appear,  they  are  derived  from  two  ova  which  become  united  in 
utero;  and  moreover,  monstrosities  with  multiple  parts  are  usu- 
ally born  dead  or  die  soon  after  birth.  At  one  time  such  mon- 
strosities were  considered  to  be  portents  of  evil ;  even  Martin 
Luther  said  of  such  a  monstrosity  occurring  near  where  he  lived, 
that  it  "presaged  great  misfortunes  and  trials,  and  might  pos- 
sibly mean  even  the  approach  of  the  Day  of  Judgment." 

But  the  human  mind  is  so  constituted  that  many  persons  can 
believe  almost  anything.  Among  the  signs  and  portents  which 
preceded  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  under  Titus,  were  the  fol- 
lowing: A  comet  appeared  nightly  for  a  whole  year  (a  comet  is 
even  now  regarded  as  a  premonition  of  war,  for  a  large  comet 


60  SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

appeared  just  before  our  civil  war,  and  one  also  appeared  about 
1910  prior  to  the  present  war;  to  the  superstitious  this  is  proof 
enough) ;  a  cow  was  brought  into  the  temple  for  sacrifice,  but 
gave  birth  to  a  sheep  right  before  the  altar.  The  clouds  appeared 
to  resemble  warring  armies  of  soldiery.  These  portents  were 
warnings  to  the  Jews  that  God  was  about  to  punish  them  for  hav- 
ing demanded  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus. 

The  belief  that  mankind  was  originally  either  sexless,  or  en- 
dowed with  both  sexes  in  the  same  person  calls  for  very  super- 
stitious and  uneducated  people. 

In  this  connection  it  may  be  of  interest  to  state  that  at  Spy, 
Belgium,  two  nearly  perfect  skeletons  were  found,  one,  of  a  male, 
the  other  of  a  female,  as  well  differentiated  as  the  two  sexes  are 
today;  they  belonged  to  the  Neanderthal  type  of  mankind  (see 
p.  325)  and  this  type  existed  in  Europe  from  50,000  to  200,000 
years  ago.  The  differentiation  of  sex  took  place,  in  fact,  in  the 
algae,  the  lowest  type  of  plants,  probably  before  any  kind  of 
animal  life  existed. 

What  Determines  Sex? 

Many  theories  have  been  proposed  to  explain  the  determina- 
tion of  sex.  I  will  refer  only  to  the  most  plausible  theory,  and  the 
one  now  most  commonly  accepted  by  scientists. 

The  human  body  requires  a  greater  time  to  reach  maturity 
than  any  other  organism.  During  the  growth  of  the  body  the 
bones  and  their  epiphyses  are  separate,  and  they  do  not  become 
solidly  united  until  about  the  age  of  22  or  23  years. 

Here  are  two  x-ray  pictures,  one  of  the  hand  of  a  young  girl 
in  which  the  bones  in  the  fingers  are  not  yet  united  (Fig.  22)  but 
the  epiphyses  are  still  separate. 

In  Fig.  23  is  shown  the  sciagraph,  or  x-ray  photograph,  of 
a  woman's  hand,  showing  the  location  of  the  point  of  a  needle 
broken  off  in  her  thumb,  but  introduced  here  to  show  that  the 
bones  of  the  hand  and  their  epiphyses  are  united,  or  form  one 
bone;  the  growth  of  the  individual  is  therefore  completed. 

One  theory  is  that  a  woman  who  is  married  before  she  is 
fully  perfected,  needs  nourishing  mater.i;ii  for  herself  and  has  not 
so  much  to  spare  for  a  child  she  may  carry  in  her  womb,  and  that 
this  lack  of  sufficient  nourishment  for  the  child  will  prevent  the 
fullest  development  of  the  latter  and  it  will  be  born  a  boy;  while 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


Gl 


a  woman  fully  formed  or  matured  will  have  more  surplus  food 
and  her  child  is  apt  to  be  a  girl. 

This  accounts  for  the  fact  that  the  first  child  of  a  young 
woman  is  quite  commonly  a  boy,  while  later  children,  when  the 
mother  is  more  mature,  are  girls. 

Incidentally,  the  too  early  consolidation  of  the  bones  of  the 
skull  in  the  negroes  is  supposed  to  be  the  cause  of  the  retardation 
of  the  brains  in  this  race,  and  the  cause  of  the  inferiority  which 
has  made  this  race  the  servants  and  slaves  of  all  other  races,  as 
shown  by  the  history  of  mankind  from  the  earliest  times  to  now. 


Fig.  22. — X-ray  photograph  of  the  hand 
of  a  girl ;  not  yet  fully  matured. 


Fig.  23. — X-ray  photograph  of  the  hand 
of  a  matured  woman ;  see  broken  end  of 
needle  in  thumb. 


The  Determination  of  Sex  Depends  on  Nourishment 

Up  to  a  certain  and  often  quite  advanced  period  of  devel- 
opment of  the  embryo,  sex  is  undetermined,  and  the  individual 
may  become  either  a  male  or  a  female.  In  toads,  for  example, 
sex  is  for  a  long  time  undetermined,  the  development  of  the  sex- 
ual organs  being  retarded  until  a  quite  late  period ;  circumstances 
may  occur,  therefore,  quite  late,  to  determine  whether  the  young 
toad  will  become  a  male  or  female,  each  one  having  traces  of 
both  sex-organs  in  early  youth.  When  tadpoles  are  left  to  them- 
selves, females  preponderate  in  the  proportion  of  about  57  in  100. 

I  quote  only  one  experiment,  made  by  Yung:*    Yung  took  a 


"Sometimes  this   name   is   spelled   Young,  and   sometimes   Yung;    the   latter   is   probably   correct 


62  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

brood  of  tadpoles  and  divided  it  into  two  equal  parts;  the  first 
set,  left  to  itself,  produced  56%  females,  while  by  feeding  the 
other  set  on  the  especially  nourishing  flesh  of  frogs  the  propor- 
tion of  females  rose  to  92%.  The  high  feeding  increased  the  an- 
abolic tendency  sufficiently  to  produce  92  females  to  only  8  males. 

"A  robust  woman  under  favorable  conditions  is  apt  to  give 
birth  to  a  girl,  while  under  unfavorable  conditions  a  boy  will 
probably  be  born.  The  general  conclusion,  more  or  less  clearly 
grasped  by  numerous  investigators,  is,  that  favorable  nutritive 
conditions  tend  to  produce  females,  and  unfavorable  conditions 
males." 

Probably  the  majority  of  parents  are  proud  when  the  mid- 
wife or  doctor  announces  "it's  a  boy!"  And  the  hope  that  it 
will  be  a  boy  is  ever  present  in  the  heart  of  the  prospective  mother. 

If  it  were  possible  to  control  the  sex  of  the  child  in  the  womb, 
possibly  women  would  be  far  scarcer  than  they  are  now;  but, 
fortunately,  so  far,  efforts  to  control  the  determination  of  sex 
have  proved  futile. 

As  long  ago  as  1672  a  French  physician  collected  262  theories 
bearing  on  the  determination  of  sex,*  all  of  which  he  considered 
useless ;  and  he  added  another  theory,  which  time  and  experience 
demonstrated  to  be  equally  wrong. 

Cudworth,  an  English  writer,  considers  the  fact  that  males 
and  females  are  produced  in  about  equal  ratio,  as  a  powerful  ar- 
gument in  favor  of  a  teleological  plan  in  the  universe.  He  con- 
tends that  no  accidental  combination  of  elements  could  be  suffi- 
cient cause  to  produce  that  balance  of  male  and  female  individuals 
on  which  the  preservation  of  the  species  depends. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  among  organisms  of  the  most  widely 
different  kinds,  the  males  and  females  are  produced  in  nearly 
equal  numbers,  with  a  slight  preponderance  of  males.  Among 
humans  there  are  born  about  1050  males  to  1000  females ;  but  boys 
are  slightly  larger,  therefore  subject  to  more  chances  of  injury 
during  childbirth;  they  are  biologically  a  little  less  fitted  to  live, 
therefore  the  mortality  in  the  first  year  or  two  after  birth  is 
greater  among  boys  than  among  girls;  and  in  a  few  years  the 
equality  in  numbers  is  practically  restored.  The  less  vitality  of 
boys  is  also  shown  by  a  large  preponderance  of  still  births  among 
boys  over  those  among  girls. 

•According  to  Dr.   E.   Apert. 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  63 

And  what  is  still  more  curious,  we  find  the  same  ratio  of  the 
sexes  among  our  domestic  animals:  Cattle,  males  1046  to  1000 
females;  horses,  1010  males  to  1000  females;  ducks,  1050  males 
to  1000  females;  etc. 

The  latest  theory  to  account  for  this,  is  that  in  the  final  di- 
vision of  the  nuclei  in  forming  two  spermatozoa,  one  half  of  each 
cell  becomes  a  male-producing  spermatozoon,  the  other  half  a 
female-producing  spermatozoon;  that  is,  these  two  spermatozoa 
differ  in  their  nuclear  and  chromosome  constituents,  so  that  one 
in  union  with  an  ovum  will  produce  a  male  embryo,  while  the  other 
would  produce  a  female  embryo. 

These  two  kinds  of  spermatozoa  necessarily  are  produced  in 
absolutely  equal  numbers;  the  chances  therefore  are  even  as  far 
as  the  spermatozoa  for  an  impregnation  are  concerned,  as  to  the 
number  of  the  resultant  sexes. 

"In  the  production  of  male  sexual  elements  the  nucleus  of 
the  spermatocyte  divides  up  asymmetrically.  Half  the  sperma- 
tozoa have  a  nucleus  identical  in  structure  with  that  of  the  ovule 
in  respect  to  the  number  of  chromosomes.  The  ovules  fertilized 
by  these  spermatozoa  will  consequently  have  a  symmetrical  nu- 
cleus since  it  is  built  up  of  two  equivalent  parts  and  these  develop 
a  female  embryo.  The  remaining  spermatozoa  have  a  nucleus  dif- 
fering in  structure  from  that  of  the  ovule  and  the  ovules  fertilized 
by  these  spermatozoa  are  asymmetrical  and  develop  male  em- 
bryos." (E.  Apert,  M.D.) 

The  chances  for  any  conception  to  produce  a  boy  or  a  girl 
are  equal  as  far  as  the  numbers  of  male-producing  and  female- 
producing  spermatozoa  are  concerned;  but  there  is  an  excess  of 
boys.  This  may  possibly  be  accounted  for  by  a  greater  activity 
of  the  male-producing  spermatozoa;  it  is  possible  that  they  share 
the  general  sex-bias  of  activity  and  ascend  quicker  and  in  greater 
numbers,  so  as  to  make  the  chances  incline  slightly  in  favor  of 
male  births. 

But  if  this  theory  is  true,  all  attempts  to  control  the  pre- 
determination of  sex  must  fail,  because  we  can  not  control  whether 
a  male-producing  or  a  female-producing  spermatozoon  will  win 
the  race  to  the  ovum  in  the  Fallopian  tubes. 

In  Korea  there  are  sacred  edifices  where  a  large  stone  is 
mounted  on  a  pivot  so  that  it  can  be  turned  like  a  turnstile;  if  a 
pregnant  woman  desires  the  child  to  be  a  boy,  she  turns  this 


64  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

stone  around  once;  more  frequent  turning  invokes  blessing  on 
children  she  already  has.  This  method  of  predetermining  the  sex 
of  the  offspring  is  probably  just  as  effective  as  any  of  the  262 
methods  referred  to  above. 

The  inferiority  of  the  male  is  strikingly  shown  in  the  bees ;  a 
queen  bee  is  fertilized  by  a  male  during  the  nuptial  flight  known 
as  "swarming."  When  she  returns  to  the  hive,  the  balance  of 
her  life  is  practically  devoted  to  laying  eggs  which  are  cared  for 
by  the  workers.  The  queen  controls  the  fertilization  of  her  eggs ; 
she  can  lay  either  unfertilized  or  fertilized  eggs.  The  unferti- 
lized eggs  develop  into  males  or  drones ;  the  fertilized  eggs  develop 
into  imperfect  females  or  workers ;  by  special  attention  and  food, 
a  worker  larva  can  be  developed  into  a  perfect  female,  or  queen, 
in  case  the  queen  dies,  or  a  new  swarm  is  to  be  provided  for.  In 
other  words,  a  drone,  or  male,  can  be  produced  by  the  imperfect 
method  of  reproduction,  called  parthenogenesis,  while  the  produc- 
tion of  females  requires  the  more  perfect  method  of  the  coopera- 
tion of  both  sex  elements.  The  Phylloxera,  a  grapevine  pest,  lays 
small  eggs  parthenogenetically,  which  yield  males  and  wingless  fe- 
males ;  also,  large  eggs,  which  are  fertilized  and  yield  winged  or 
perfect  females. 

The  excess  of  assimilation  over  waste  in  the  female  sex  which 
shows  itself  in  some  of  the  lower  animals  by  the  greater  size  and 
vitality  of  the  females  and  by  their  greater  development,  mani- 
fests itself  in  the  human  female,  when  she  is  not  pregnant,  by  the 
peculiar  periodical  flow  of  the  menstrual  discharge,  which  accom- 
panies the  monthly  production  of  an  ovum;  and  still  more  mark- 
edly by  the  supply  of  nourishment  to  the  embryo  during  gestation, 
and  to  the  child  after  birth  by  lactation. 

Popular  opinion,  from  primitive  times  to  our  own  times,  con- 
sidered the  male  to  be  the  superior  animal,  because  he  has  the 
stronger  bones  and  muscles,  and  because  a  nation  is  stronger  in 
proportion  to  the  number  of  its  warriors  and  workers,  yet  science 
has  demonstrated  that  biologically  the  woman  is  the  higher  man- 
ifestation of  life. 

A  man  has  more  powerful  and  intense  sexual  appetite  than 
a  woman.  His  love  is  sensual,  physical,  lustful  and  desirous  and 
is  aroused  by  the  physical  attractiveness,  or  beauty,  of  the  woman ; 
he  therefore  is  attracted  by  every  pretty  woman,  and  his  love  is 
inconstant.  He  loves  variety;  he  has  no  periodical  states  of  sex- 


SEX    AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


ual  activity  with  intervening  periods  of  inactivity  or  apathy,  and 
he  is  always  ready,  and  generally  also  always  willing  to  indulge 
in  sexual  union  if  he  can  do  so  without  social  risks.  History,  reli- 
gion, and  the  nature  of  the  man  show  that  he  was  made  for  polyg- 
amous sexual  relationships;  monogamy  is  an  artificial  and  more 
or  less  unnatural  condition  and  a  really  monogamous  man  is  the 
exception  and  not  the  rule.  The  man  is  sexually  aggressive  and 
his  intense  sexual  desires  perpetuate  the  vices. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  well-bred  woman  does  not  seek  carnal 
gratification  and  she  is  usually  apathetic  to  sexual  pleasures.    Her 


Fig.    24 — "Faun    and    Nymph,"    from 
a  painting  by  Cabanel. 


Fig.  25.— "Joseph  and  Potiphar's  Wife," 
from  an  engraving. 


love  is  psychical  or  spiritual,  rather  than  carnal,  and  her  passive- 
ness  in  regard  to  coition  often  amounts  to  disgust  for  it;  lust  is 
seldom  an  element  in  a  woman's  character,  and  she  is  the  pre- 
server of  chastity  and  morality.  So  rare  is  it  that  this  sex-bias  is 
reversed  and  that  a  woman  solicits  and  a  man  refuses  (except,  of 
course,  among  women  who  ply  sexual  indulgence  as  a  trade  or 
vocation)  that  one  example  of  it  was  deemed  worthy  of  record, 
and  the  story  of  Joseph  and  Potiphar's  wife  is  preserved  in  holy 
writ  for  all  time  in  memorv  of  such  a  curious  reversal  of  the  usual 


66  SEX   AND   SEX   WOKSHIP 

conditions  prevailing  in  regard  to  the  relationship  of  the  sexes  to 
each  other. 

But  the  Bible  version  of  Joseph  and  Potiphar's  wife  is  not 
the  only  one,  and  perhaps  it  is  not  a  true  and  correct  one.  In  the 
Koran  is  another  version,  which  is  different,  judging  from  this, 
that  Firdousi,  a  Persian  poet,  wrote  a  poem  of  9000  couplets, 
about  the  loves  of  Joseph  and  Potiphar's  wife,  on  a  theme  taken 
from  the  Koran;  9000  couplets  seem  to  imply  some  love-making. 

If  women  were  as  salacious  as  men,  morality,  chastity  and 
virtue  would  not  exist  and  the  world  would  be  but  one  vast  brothel. 

"There  is  nothing  in  the  human  economy  of  which  men  and 
women  should  know  more  and  of  which  they  know  less  than  of 
the  sexual  relationship.  Ignorance  is  not  bliss ;  it  is  the  source  of 
unhappiness,  suffering,  crime,  vice  and  sorrow  without  end." 

The  light  of  knowledge  illuminating  this  subject  would  ele- 
vate the  present  sensual  and  impure  conceptions  of  the  relation- 
ship of  the  sexes  into  an  appreciation  of  the  real  godlike  holiness 
and  purity  of  married  companionship,  and  it  would  go  far  toward 
checking  immorality  and  prostitution. 

Add  to  the  natural  inclination  of  the  man  the  teachings  of  re- 
ligion that  the  woman  is  the  inferior  being,  that  she  was  made  for 
the  benefit  or  enjoyment  of  the  man,  and  that,  as  St.  Paul  says, 
the  "natural  use"  of  the  woman  is  coition  (Rom.  i,  27),  and  we 
can  readily  account  for  the  ages-old  injustice  that  has  been  done 
to  woman  by  man-made  laws. 

The  Status  of  Woman 

Nearly  all  religions  and  almost  all  people,  ancient  and  mod- 
ern, have  considered  woman  to  be  inferior  to  man ;  few  authorities 
have  maintained  any  equality  of  the  sexes,  and  still  fewer  have 
claimed  any  superiority  for  the  female  sex.  This  latter  was  re- 
served for  modern  biologists.  The  weight  of  authority  has  always 
been  in  favor  of  a  doctrine  of  the  superiority  of  the  male;  and 
in  regard  to  the  human  female  some  religions,  like  some  sects  of 
Mohammedans,  even  maintain  that  women  have  no  souls;  the 
Mohammedans  say  of  women  that  they  are  "long-haired  and 
short-brained. ' ' 

Philosophers  have  contended  that  woman  is  but  an  undevel- 
oped man ;  hence  it  was  but  natural  that  she  was  early  reduced  to 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  67 

the  position  of  a  dependent — a  slave.  Plato,  for  instance,  con- 
sidered the  wife  to  be  merely  a  part  and  parcel  of  the  husband's 
estate ;  to  be,  in  the  same  sense  as  was  his  horse  or  dog  or  slave, 
his  property. 

As  Shakespeare  said  in  " Taming  of  the  Shrew:" 

"I  will  be  master  of  what  is  mine  own; 
She  is  my  goods,  my  chattels;  she  is  my  house, 
My  household  stuff,  my  field,  my  barn, 
My  horse,  my  ox,  my  ass,  my  anything; 
And  here  she  stands,  touch  her  whoever  dare." 

Darwin's  theory  of  evolution  by  sexual  selection  presupposes 
a  superiority  of  the  male  line,  inherent  in  that  sex;  Spencer 
thought  that  in  woman  further  development  is  early  arrested  by 
her  procreating  functions,  by  menstruation,  or  in  a  more  marked 
manner,  by  pregnancy.  Darwin's  man  is,  as  it  wrere,  an  evolved, 
or  developed  woman,  while  Spencer's  woman  is  an  undeveloped 
man,  arrested  in  her  development  before  she  had  arrived  at  full 
evolution. 

Tiedman  regarded  every  embryo  as  naturally  male,  but  fre- 
quently some  of  them  failed  of  full  development  and  became  fe- 
males; or  as  he  expressed  it,  " degenerating  to  the  female  state." 

Starkweather  was  one  of  the  first  to  recognize  the  atrocious 
unfairness  of  such  views,  and  he  declared  that  "neither  sex  is 
physically  the  superior,  but  both  are  essentially  equal  in  a  physio- 
logical sense." 

Up  to  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  women  were  prac- 
tically held  in  a  sort  of  subjection  or  slavery  to  the  men.  They 
were  not  permitted  to  engage  in  the  ordinary  avocations,  or  wage- 
earning  professions;  the  refined  and  educated  women  might  per- 
haps become  teachers  and  the  uneducated  could  be  household 
drudges  or  servants  ("slaveys,"  as  they  are  still  called  in  Eng- 
land) ;  but  beyond  this  few  women  ventured,  for  women  writers 
of  fiction  or  poetry  were  comparatively  rare.  And  with  rare 
exceptions,  women  were  not  paid  the  same  wages  as  men,  even 
when  they  did  the  same  work.  In  Babylon  of  old,  as  the  recent 
discovery  of  tablets  of  cuneiform  inscriptions  from  Ashurban- 
ipal's  library  proves,  women  were  regarded  higher  than  even 
amongst  us,  and  were  paid  the  same  price  when  they  took  a  man 's 
place  and  did  a  man's  work. 


58  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

The  married  women  had  no  civil  rights  except  through  their 
husbands;  they  could  not  hold  property  in  their  own  names  and 
both  they  and  their  children  belonged  to  their  husbands. 

Even  our  Dictionary  definitions  imply  this  inferiority  of 
women:  "Unmanly,  =  effeminate  or  childish,"  certainly  implies 
such  a  comparison. 

We  are  not  surprised  at  such  conditions  among  savages;  for 
instance,  in  Dahomey  about  one-fourth  of  the  women  are  said  to 
be  married  to  the  fetish,  that  is,  they  are  slaves  of  the  state  and 
serve  in  the  army  which  partly  consists  of  amazons.  All  the 
other  women  are  property  of  the  King,  who  disposes  of  them  as 
he  wishes.  He  keeps  for  himself  whatever  women  please  him. 
He  can  put  in  the  army  whomever  he  wishes,  and  he  supplies  his 
chief  men  liberally  with  wives.  Of  female  captives  in  war  the 
physically  fittest  are  drafted  into  the  army,  and  the  remainder 
become  camp  followers,  for  the  use  of  the  men  warriors,  or  they 
become  slaves. 

In  Ashantee  the  king  is  said  to  have  3333  wives;  this  means 
that  he  has  an  unlimited  number  of  women  to  please  his  desires. 

Such  a  savage  conception  of  woman's  status  persisted  even 
in  highly  civilized  lands.  Thus,  in  France,  up  to  only  about  130 
years  ago,  every  woman  belonged  legally  to  the  King;  the  profli- 
gate King  Louis  XV  did  not  hesitate  to  commandeer  any  lady  of 
his  court  for  whom  he  felt  a  desire.  History  tells  us  that  he  had 
good  preceptors,  but  that  by  temperament  he  wras  altogether  bad ; 
his  religion  was  merely  superstition  and  fear,  not  real  religious 
feeling;  he  was  cynical  and  coldly  selfish,  allowing  nothing  to 
interfere  with  his  desires  for  any  pleasure,  and  he  mixed  piety 
and  debauchery  in  a  gross  and  abominable  manner.  He  was  de- 
vout in  confession,  and  took  the  absolution  by  his  sycophant  con- 
fessors to  absolve  him  from  sin  and  to  permit  him  to  continue 
his  immoralities. 

It  is  related  that  once  he  commandeered  a  noble  lady  of  his 
court  as  a  companion  for  his  desires.  She  apprised  her  husband 
of  the  command  which  they  dared  not  ignore ;  so  the  husband  set 
about  deliberately  to  contract  syphilis,  which  he  imparted  to  his 
wife,  and  she  to  the  king,  who  died  miserably  from  the  malady. 

According  to  the  law  up  to  the  time  of  the  French  Eevolution 
the  king  of  France  had  the  right  to  sleep  with  any  maiden  on  the 
first  night  after  her  marriage;  this  was  the  notorious  "jus  primae 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  69 

twctis"  which  was  one  of  the  important  causes  of  the  French 
Revolution.  Of  course,  the  king  could  not  possibly  exert  this 
right  with  every  maiden,  so  lie  sublet  for  a  consideration  this 
right  to  some  one  for  a  province;  this  one  sublet  the  right  again, 
and  so  on,  until  the  last  purchaser,  the  seigneur  of  a  castle  per- 
haps, possessed  this  right  over  all  the  girls  in  his  district.  When 
a  man  wanted  to  marry,  he  could  purchase  this  right  to  the  par- 
ticular girl  whom  he  intended  to  marry,  for  a  sum  of  money  from 
the  seigneur,  who  charged  "all  the  traffic  would  bear,"  unless  he 
knew  the  lass  and  coveted  the  privilege  himself,  in  which  case 
there  was  no  method  of  eluding  his  claims. 

The  theory  that  everything  belonged  to  the  king  was  general 
in  feudal  times  in  Europe;  the  English  expressions  of  the  "king's 
army"  or  the  "king's  navy"  is  a  survival  of  those  days. 

The  Old  Testament  shows  this  inferiority  of  women  in  many 
passages,  but  here  we  wrill  only  insert  one  instance :  Lev.  xii,  2-5 : 
"Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  saying,  If  a  woman  have  con- 
ceived seed  and  borne  a  man-child :  then  she  shall  be  unclean  seven 
days;  *  *  *  And  in  the  eighth  day  the  flesh  of  his  foreskin 
shall  be  circumcised.  And  she  shall  then  continue  in  the  blood 
of  her  purifying  three  and  thirty  days :  she  shall  touch  no  hallowed 
thing  *  But  if  she  bear  a  maid-child,  then  she  shall  be 

unclean  two  weeks  *  *  *  and  she  shall  continue  in  the  blood 
of  her  purifying  three-score  and  six  days." 

In  other  words,  the  Biblical  theory  was  that  giving  birth  to 
a  girl  makes  the  mother  twice  as  unclean  as  giving  birth  to  a  boy, 
and  her  penance  is  twice  as  great. 

It  is  asserted  by  the  natives  of  Africa  that  instances  have 
been  known  that  a  gorilla  has  carried  off  a  human  female  and 
kept  her  as  a  mate. 

The  low  estimation  in  which  woman  is  held  by  many  men. 
even  at  the  present  time  and  in  civilized  lands,  is  a  survival  from 
the  times  when  women  wrere  slaves. 

This  statue  of  the  "Gorilla"  by  Fremiet  (Fig.  26)  allego- 
rizes the  degraded  status  of  women  under  such  systems  and  ideas 
of  marriage  and  motherhood. 

This  group  of  the  "Captive  Mother,"  by  Sinding  (Fig.  27),  is 
a  symbolization  of  woman — "the  nourisher  of  the  race,  bound 
and  hampered  in  her  noblest  work  by  many  limitations.  She  is 
the  victim  of  oppression;  she  is  denied  the  freedom  of  develop- 


70  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

ment  by  ties  which  bind  her  to  false  ideas  of  sex  ethics,  which 
deny  her  the  social  and  political  equality  with  her  brother  to  which 
she  is  entitled.  She  is  held  responsible  for  the  education  of  her 
children,  which  the  laws  of  many  states  and  countries  declare  be- 
long to  the  husband  and  not  to  her. 

' '  A  franker  recognition  of  the  essential  purity  of  sex  will  en- 
noble motherhood  and  free  womanhood  from  the  tragedy  which 
now  surrounds  her." 

St.  Augustine  raised  the  question  whether  Eve  derived  her 


Fig.  26— "The  Gorilla,"  by  Fremiet. 

soul  from  Adam  or  whether  God  imparted  to  her  a  soul  of  her 
own  by  blowing  his  breath  in  her  nostrils.  Arguments  were  ad- 
vanced in  favor  of  both  views.  In  some  of  the  nations  of  Asia 
Minor,  where  these  arguments  were  known,  some  sects  adopted 
the  view  that  Eve  was  made  from  the  flesh  of  Adam  but  was  left 
without  a  soul.  This  belief,  that  a  woman  has  no  soul,  was  even 
held  by  some  teachers  in  the  early  Christian  Church,  for  we  find 
that  the  Provincial  Council  of  Macon,  as  late  as  the  sixth  century, 
seriously  debated  whether  woman  has  a  soul  or  not;  and  as  re- 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  71 

cently  as  1895  a  minister  in  an  Eastern  city  preached  that  the 
Bible  teaches  that  woman  has  no  soul! 

The  early  church-fathers  taught  that  woman  was  a  tempta- 
tion and  a  snare ;  that  her  mind  was  evil  and  her  body  unholy  and 
impure,  and  that  desire  for  her  was  a  sin.  St.  Paul  said:  "It  is 
good  for  a  man  not  to  touch  a  woman;"  "the  head  of  the  woman 
is  the  man"  *  *  *  "for  the  man  is  not  of  the  woman  but 
the  woman  of  the  man  *  *  *  neither  was  the  man  created  for 
the  woman  but  the  woman  for  the  man.  Wives,  submit  yourselves 
unto  your  own  husbands  as  unto  the  Lord  *  *  *  for  the  hus- 
band is  the  head  of  the  wife  *  *  *  therefore  as  the  church  is 
subject  unto  Christ,  so  let  the  wives  be  to  their  husbands  in  every- 
thing, *  *  *  let  the  wife  see  that  she  reverence  her  husband." 


Fig.  27. — "The  Captive  Mother,"  by  Binding.    A  replica  of  this  is  in  the  St.  Louis  Art 

Museum. 

Girls  and  women  have  always  been  considered  subject  to  the 
desires  of  men,  and  even  St.  Paul  speaks  of  the  "natural  use" 
of  woman  as  being  coition.  Canonical  law  says:  "Only  man  was 
created  in  the  image  of  God,  not  woman!  therefore  woman  should 
serve  him  and  be  his  maid."  The  inferior  position  into  which 
law,  custom  and  religion  thus  placed  woman  is  allegorically  rep- 
resented in  the  statue  of  the  "Gorilla"  (Fig.  26). 

The  same  belief,  that  woman  has  no  soul,  is  held  by  some  of 
the  Mohammedan  sects ;  this  led  to  a  belief  that  no  particular  sin 
was  committed  by  killing  a  woman,  and  led  to  the  practice  that 
if  a  wife,  concubine  or  slave  displeased  her  master,  there  was  no 


72  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

stronger  consideration  than  her  money  value  to  deter  him  from 
disposing  of  her,  which  was  usually  done  by  tying  her  up  in  a 
sack  with  some  rocks  or  other  Aveight,  and  dropping  her  into  the 
Bosphorus.  This  could  be  done  without  incurring  any  charge  of 
murder  as  the  master  held  the  " power"  of  life  and  death  and 
events  that  happened  in  the  harem  did  not  reach  the  public. 

Among  the  Chinese,  also,  such  a  belief  prevails,  and  therefore 
the  Chinese  have  no  more  hesitation  about  killing  an  unwelcome 
female  infant  than  we  would  have  about  destroying  superfluous 
kittens  or  puppies.  The  destruction  of  girl  babies  is  rather  an 
abandonment  by  leaving  the  newly-born  infants  on  lots,  similar 
to  the  ' '  dying  fields, ' '  *  where  anyone  who  wants  a  girl  baby  is 
welcome  to  take  what  he  wants ;  those  that  are  not  rescued  in  this 
manner  soon  die,  except  in  the  cities  where  foreign  missionaries 
gather  them  up  and  rear  them  in  orphan  asylums.  About  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  ago  there  appeared  in  a  missionary  report  the 
statement  that  during  a  great  famine,  grown  girls  were  sold  to 
the  butchers  for  about  $3  each,  to  be  slaughtered  and  cut  up  for 
food;  to  sell  girls  to  become  slaves  is  probably  an  everyday  hap- 
pening in  China. 

Infanticide  is  common  among  the  Asiatics.  In  ancient  times, 
even  in  Europe,  a  neAvborn  babe  Avas  showTn  to  the  father,  Avho 
decided  Avhether  it  Avas  to  be  raised  or  killed.  Especially  Avere 
girls  thus  killed,  because  they  were  as  expensi\7e  and  troublesome 
to  raise  as  boys,  and  Avhen  they  were  old  enough  to  repay  for  this 
trouble  by  labor,  this  labor  Avent  to  a  stranger,  the  husband. 
Hence  arose  a  custom  of  demanding  a  remuneration  from  the  hus- 
band as  is  still  done  in  many  African  and  Asiatic  tribes ;  but  such 
a  gift  to  the  father  made  the  freeborn  girl  a  slaA^e  of  the  hus- 
band, to  do  Avith  as  he  pleased. 

In  exogamic  tribes  (tribes  that  are  not  permitted  to  marry 
within  their  OAVTI  tribe,  but  must  get  Avives  elseAvhere)  infanticide 
of  girls  is  due  to  another  cause,  the  fear  of  attack  by  neighboring 
tribes  Avho  Avant  to  steal  their  daughters  for  wives;  they  kill  the 
daughters  in  infancy,  to  have  no  marriageable  young  Avomen  to 
tempt  the  cupidity  of  their  neighbors. 

Still  another  reason  produced  the  general  practice  of  infanti- 
cide in  nearly  all  Polynesian  (Pacific)  islands;  the  danger  of 

*In  China  fields  are  set  aside  to  which  people  may  resort,  to  die  without  being  interfered 
with.  Most  of  those  who  go  there  to  die,  take  a  large  dose  of  opium. 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  73 

famines  occurring  from  overpopulation.  The  surest  way  to  keep 
down  the  population  was  to  kill  the  girl  babies,  and  in  many  of 
the  islands  the  proportion  of  girls  which  might  be  raised  was 
strictly  controlled  by  tribal  laws.  Of  course,  in  the  Christianized 
islands  infanticide  is  no  longer  practiced,  nor  are  famines  apt  to 
occur  on  account  of  better  methods  of  sending  food  in  case  of 
need. 

The  Bashgalis  (a  tribe  in  Afghanistan)  freely  sell  their  fe- 
male children  to  the  Mohammedans;  and  they  pay  to  the  King  of 
Chitral  an  annual  tribute  in  children  (of  both  sexes)  whom  he 
disposes  of  as  slaves,  as  a  method  of  raising  a  revenue  for  himself. 

In  all  times  there  have  been  efforts  to  establish  socialistic 
communities.  "We  have  already  mentioned  that  Plato  considered 
the  wife  to  be  merely  a  part  of  the  property  or  estate  of  the  hus- 
band; he  was  an  advocate  of  community  of  property,  and  this  led 
him  also  to  advocate  community  of  wives.  In  his  works  he  speaks 
of  the  "possession  and  use  of  women  and  children,"  and  he  con- 
sidered monogamy  to  be  a  reprehensible  claim  to  the  exclusive 
possession  on  the  part  of  one  man  to  a  piece  of  property  (a 
woman)  which  ought  to  be  for  the  benefit  and  enjoyment  of  the 
community. 

Repeatedly  communistic  societies  have  been  wrecked  by  at- 
tacking marriage  and  advocating  promiscuous  intercourse  be- 
tween the  sexes;  the  underlying  principle  being  that  the  women 
were  property  which  belonged  to  the  whole  community  and  which 
it  was  wrong  to  appropriate  for  the  exclusive  use  of  one  member 
of  the  community. 

The  claim  of  Petruchio:  "She  is  my  goods,  my  chattels" 
would  not  be  allowed  in  a  socialistic  community.  As  an  example, 
let  us  take  the  "Perfectionists,"  a  communistic  sect  of  Oneida. 
NT.  Y. ;  they  have  put  in  practice  a  community  of  wives,  claiming 
that  there  is  no  intrinsic  difference  between  property  in  persons 
and  property  in  things,  and  that  the  same  principles  or  ideas  that 
abolish  exclusiveness  in  regard  to  money,  necessarily  also  abol- 
ish exclusiveness  in  regard  to  women  and  children. 

On  the  other  hand,  "the  Economists"  and  the  "Shakers"  are 
celibate  societies,  getting  new  members  from  outsiders  or  con- 
verts. The  "Separatists"  favor  celibacy,  although  they  do  not 
enforce  it,  but  in  their  religious  declarations  they  express  the  be- 


74  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

lief  that  celibacy  is  more  in  accord  with  the  Divine  will  than  mar- 
riage. 

This  inferiority  of  women  still  continues  in  most  countries, 
and  in  most  states  of  our  own  country.  Modern  laws  are  based 
largely  on  the  Roman  laws,  and  in  ancient  Rome  the  father  (the 
male)  held  the  power  of  life  and  death  of  his  slaves,  his  wife,  his 
concubines,  and  his  children;  the  wife  was  the  property  of  the 
husband,  and  the  law  held  that  she  was  acquired  solely  and  exclu- 
sively for  the  benefit  and  pleasure  of  the  husband,  just  as  were 
his  slaves. 

Even  when  the  civil  Roman  laws  were  supplanted  by  the 
ecclesiastical  laws,  the  woman's  status  was  not  much  bettered. 
The  Canon  law  was  averse  to  the  independence  of  the  woman,  and 
held  her  in  the  same  subjection  as  before;  it  especially  taught  that 
the  wife  was  to  be  in  subjection  to  the  husband,  and  that  she 
was  to  be  obedient  to  him  in  all  things. 

The  Napoleonic  Code  declared  that  the  woman  was  the  prop- 
erty of  the  husband.  Women,  collectively,  were  the  property  of 
the  state. 

Such  laws  in  their  origin  were  based  on  the  Asiatic  idea  that 
all  women  were  the  property  of  the  head  of  the  household;  they 
could  be  disposed  of,  sold,  transferred  or  conveyed  to  others  as 
wives  or  slaves  at  the  will  of  the  men;  it  possibly  dated  back  to 
the  troglodite  age,  when  marriage  by  capture  prevailed,  and  all 
women  were  slaves. 

In  India  the  subordination  of  the  wife  is  abject.  The  Hindu 
religion  prescribes  the  humble  subjection  of  the  wife  to  the  hus- 
band; it  commands  her  to  honor  and  obey  him,  even  when  he  is 
old  or  ugly,  crippled  or  diseased,  irascible  or  brutal,  cruel  and 
fiendish,  a  drunkard  or  a  criminal,  and  to  worship  him  as  if  he 
were  a  god. 

In  the  Mosaic  law  the  woman's  status  was  not  much  im- 
proved ;  a  husband  could  divorce  a  wife  at  will,  but  the  wife  could 
not  divorce  a  husband.  Let  us  consider  a  few  laws  of  Moses  re- 
garding woman.  Deut.  xx,  13,  14: — "And  when  the  Lord  thy  God 
hath  delivered  it  (the  city)  into  thy  hands  thou  shalt  smite  every 
male  thereof  with  the  edge  of  the  sword :  but  the  women  and  the 
little  ones,  and  the  cattle,  and  all  that  is  in  the  city,  even  all  the 
spoil  thereof  shalt  thou  take  unto  thyself  *  *  * 

Deut.  xxi,  10:  "When  thou  goest  forth  to  war  against  thine 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP  75 

enemies  and  thou  hast  taken  them  captive,  and  seest  among  the 
captives  a  beautiful  woman  and  hast  a  desire  unto  her,  that  thou 
wouldst  have  her  to  wife  *  *  *  thou  shalt  go  in  unto  her  and 
be  her  husband,  and  she  shall  be  thy  wife.  And  it  shall  be  if 
thou  have  no  delight  in  her,  then  thou  shalt  let  her  go  whither  she 
will;  but  thou  shalt  not  sell  her  at  all  for  money;  thou  shalt  not 
make  merchandise  of  her,  because  thou  hast  humbled  her." 

Deut.  xxii,  22,  et  seq.:  "If  a  man  be  found  lying  with  a 
woman  married  to  a  husband,  then  they  shall  both  of  them  die 
*  *  *  (Here  the  offence  was  to  the  husband,  the  owner  of 

the  woman.)  "If  a  damsel  that  is  a  virgin  be  betrothed  unto  a 
husband,  and  a  man  find  her  in  the  city  and  lie  with  her;  then  ye 
shall  bring  them  both  out  unto  the  gate  of  the  city  and  ye  shall 
stone  them  with  stones  that  they  die ;  the  damsel,  because  she  cried 
not,  being  in  the  city.  *  *  But  if  a  man  find  a  betrothed  dam- 
sel in  the  field,  and  the  man  force  her,  and  lie  with  her,  then  the 
man  only  that  lay  with  her  shall  die.  But  unto  the  damsel  thou 
shalt  do  nothing;  there  is  in  the  damsel  no  sin  worthy  of  death; 
for  as  when  a  man  riseth  against  his  neighbor  and  slayeth  him 
even  so  is  this  matter.  For  he  found  her  in  the  field,  and  the  be- 
trothed damsel  cried,  and  there  was  none  to  save  her.  (Here  the 
offence  is  not  against  the  maiden,  but  against  the  man  to  whom 
she  is  betrothed.)  If  a  man  find  a  damsel  that  is  a  virgin  which 
is  not  betrothed,  and  lay  hold  on  her  and  lie  with  her,  and  they 
be  found ;  then  the  man  that  lay  with  her  shall  give  unto  the  dam- 
sel's  father  fifty  shekels  of  silver,  and  she  shall  be  his  wife." 

In  early  England  the  wife  often  was  the  purchased  slave  of 
the  man.  The  laws  of  Athelbert  directed  that  if  any  man  ab- 
ducted the  wife  of  an  English  freeman,  he  must  at  his  own  expense 
buy  another  wife  for  the  husband. 

The  laws  were  much  stricter  for  women  than  men.  For  in- 
stance, if  a  female  slave  was  convicted  of  theft  she  was  burnt 
alive,  under  the  laws  of  Ethelstan. 

By  the  laws  of  Canute,  adultery  on  the  part  of  a  wife  was 
punishable  by  cutting  off  her  ears  and  nose,  but  adultery  on  the 
part  of  the  husband  was  an  offence  so  trivial,  that  the  civil  laws 
took  no  notice  of  it.  As  late  as  the  latter  half  of  last  century 
(that  is,  only  about  50  or  60  years  or  less  ago)  the  man  in  Eng- 
land could  obtain  a  divorce  on  account  of  adultery  on  the  part  of 
the  wife,  but  the  wife  could  not  sue  for  divorce  on  this  ground, 


76  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

but  had  to  add  other  grounds — cruelty,  indignities,  habitual 
drunkenness,  abandonment,  failure  to  provide  for  her  and  her 
children,  etc. 

Even  as  late  as  1885,  as  we  are  told  in  the  British  Encyclope- 
dia, adultery  by  the  husband  was  no  crime  and  was  ignored  by  the 
civil  law;  the  ecclesiastical  courts  made  it  a  source  of  income,  by 
imposing  a  fine  on  the  offender,  up  to  the  XVII  Century,  but  even 
this  was  not  done  later  on. 

Up  to  and  in  the  XVII  Century  a  married  woman  had  no 
rights  in  England  except  such  as  the  husband  voluntarily  granted ; 
her  property  and  her  person  were  entirely  subject  to  his  pleasure, 
during  his  lifetime ;  and  in  some  countries,  at  his  death,  the  wom- 
an 's  property,  in  the  absence  of  a  will,  went  to  his  relatives,  and 
not  to  her  or  her  children. 

Even  until  quite  recent  times  in  our  own  country,  and  even 
now,  when  an  American  girl  marries  a  foreigner,  if  she  wants  to 
retain  her  property  for  herself  and  children,  she  has  to  have  it 
transferred  before  marriage  to  trustees  to  hold  for  her.  She  her- 
self, however,  has  the  income  only  at  the  pleasure  of  the  trustees, 
but  this  was  considered  better  than  to  give  the  capital  outright 
to  a  foreign  titled  prince  who  could  spend  it  as  he  wished,  on 
other  women,  even  refusing  his  wife  the  necessary  amounts  to 
keep  her  in  the  style  to  which  she  was  accustomed. 

After  the  Reformation,  the  law  in  England  became  changed 
somewhat;  all  marriages  \vere  solemnized  by  a  priest,  but  the 
woman  had  to  be  covered  with  a  veil  (" femme  couverte") ;  an  en- 
gagement to  marry  was  almost  of  the  binding  force  of  a  marriage, 
for  if  the  girl  changed  her  mind  and  married  some  one  else,  this 
subsequent  marriage  was  legally  null  and  void.  According  to 
canon  law  (church  law),  the  seduction  of  a  woman  by  her  be- 
trothed was  not  punishable  "on  account  of  the  betrothal  beginning 
to  entitle  him  to  the  control  of  her  body." 

In  some  states  seduction  of  an  unmarried  woman  under  prom- 
ise to  marry  her  is  a  crime,  but  marriage  subsequently  is  a  bar 
to  criminal  proceedings. 

According  to  old  English  (King  Aethelbright)  laws,  it  was 
decreed:  "If  a  man  carry  off  a  maiden  by  force,  let  him  pay  50 
shillings  to  the  owner,  and  afterwards  buy  the  maiden  from  her 
owner."  If  she  was  betrothed,  he  was  to  pay  20  shillings  to  the 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  77 

one  to  whom  she  was  betrothed,  and  if  she  became  pregnant,  35 
shillings,  and  15  shillings  to  the  king. 

In  such  laws  no  offence  is  committed  against  the  maiden,  but 
only  against  her  masculine  "owner." 

In  Massachusetts,  quite  recently,  if  a  man  commits  fornica- 
tion with  a  single  woman,  each  is  to  be  imprisoned  for  three 
months  or  to  be  fined  $30  each.  Even  quite  recently  the  theory 
of  the  English  law  in  cases  of  seduction  is  that  the  woman  herself 
has  suffered  no  wrong ;  the  wrong  has  been  suffered  by  the  parent 
(or  the  person  who  is  legally  in  the  place  of  the  owner  or  parent) 
who  must  sue  for  loss  of  service! 

As  to  the  seduction  of  a  married  woman  a  claim  for  damages 
against  the  co-respondent  can  be  made. 

But  it  is  a  felony  to  seduce  a  girl  under  13  years  old;  after 
that  she  is  assumed  to  have  given  assent,  and  the  seduction  is 
not  a  felony.  We  in  this  country  have  framed  our  laws  in  con- 
sonance with  English  laws,  and  legal  retributions  for  crimes 
against  our  women  have  often  either  failed  entirely  or  were  very 
inadequate.  Hence  we  have  tacitly  adopted  an  "unwritten  law," 
according  to  which  the  injured  father,  brother,  or  husband  takes 
the  law  in  his  own  hands  and  kills  the  offender. 

The  Synod  of  Elvira  established  many  regulations  concern- 
ing the  relations  of  men  toward  women. 

Article  LXI.  "If  any  one  after  the  death  of  his  wife  marries 
her  sister,  she  being  herself  a  believer,  it  is  decreed  that  he  should 
be  kept  from  communion  for  five  years,  unless  perchance  the  ex- 
tremity of  sickness  requires  that  peace  be  given  him  sooner." 

Art.  LXVII.  "It  is  forbidden  that  any  woman  of  the  faith 
or  a  catechumen  (one  under  instruction  or  probation)  should 
have  hair-dressers  or  hair-curlers;  whosoever  do  so,  let  them  be 
driven  from  the  communion." 

Art.  LXXXI.  "Concerning  the  letters  of  women. — Women 
should  not  presume  to  write  letters  to  laymen  in  their  own  names 
and  not  in  the  names  of  their  husbands;  nor  should  they  receive 
friendly  letters  from  anyone  addressed  to  their  names  alone." 

Many  efforts  have  been  made  at  various  times  and  by  vari- 
ous law-makers,  to  dictate  the  styles  of  clothing,  etc.,  that  may 
or  may  not  be  used  by  women;  usually  such  legislation  is  soon 
ignored. 

In   Rome,   for   instance,   a  law  was   passed,   "on   woman's 


78  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

dress,"  during  the  Punic  war,  that  "no  woman  should  possess 
more  than  half  an  ounce  of  gold  or  wear  a  garment  of  various  col- 
ors, or  ride  in  a  carriage  drawn  by  horses,  in  a  city,  or  any  town, 
or  any  place  nearer  thereto  than  one  mile;  except  on  occasion  of 
some  public  religious  solemnity." 

Livy  tells  us  that  the  women  soon  attempted  to  have  this  law 
repealed ;  '  *  the  capitol  was  filled  with  crowds  who  favored  or  op- 
posed the  law;  nor  could  the  matrons  be  kept  at  home,  either  by 
advice  or  shame,  nor  even  by  commands  of  their  husbands;  but 
beset  every  street  and  pass  in  the  city,  beseeching  the  men  as  they 
went  down  to  the  forum,  that  *  *  *  they  would  suffer  the 
women  to  have  their  former  ornaments  of  dress  restored.  *  * 
The  women  next  day  poured  out  into  public  in  much  greater 
numbers  *  *  *  there  was  then  no  further  doubt  but  that  every 
one  of  the  tribes  would  vote  for  the  repeal  of  the  law." 

This  has  always  been  the  result  of  similar  laws  to  control 
what  women  shall  or  shall  not  wear. 

A  few  paragraphs  from  the  Salic  Law  (Teutons,  Anglo- 
Saxons)  will  be  of  interest: 

Title  XIII.  "Concerning  rape  committed  by  Freemen.  1.  If 
three  men  carry  off  a  freeborn  girl,  they  shall  be  compelled  to 
pay  30  shillings.  2.  If  there  are  more  than  three,  each  one  shall 
pay  5  shillings.  4.  But  those  who  commit  rape  shall  pay  63  shil- 
lings." 

Title  XLIV.  "Concerning  marrying  a  widow. — If  a  man 
wishes  to  marry  a  widow  he  must  pay  3  shillings  and  1  denar 
to  her  former  husband's  estate  (of  which  she  is  apparently  part 
of  the  property).  If  he  marries  her  without  approval  of  the 
authorities  he  must  pay  63  shillings  to  the  one  to  whom  belongs 
the  reipus  (the  payment  of  the  3  shillings  and  1  denar). 

The  Koran  contains  a  ' '  Chapter  of  Women ; ' '  here  are  a  few 
extracts : 

"In  the  name  of  the  merciful  and  compassionate  God!  0,  ye 
folk !  fear  your  Lord,  who  created  you  from  one  soul,  and  created 
therefrom  its  mate,  and  diffused  from  them  twain  many  men  and 
women.  And  fear  God,  in  whose  name  ye  beg  of  one  another,  and 
the  wombs;  verily,  God  over  you  doth  watch.  *  *  *  Marry 
what  seems  good  to  you  of  women,  by  twos,  or  threes,  or  fours; 
and  if  ye  fear  that  ye  can  not  be  equitable,  then  only  one.  *  *  * 

"Against  those  of  your  women  who  commit  adultery,  call 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  79 

witnesses,  four  in  number  from  among  yourselves;  and  if  these 
bear  witness,  then  keep  the  women  in  houses  until  death  release 
them  *  *  (Imprisonment  for  life).  But  if  ye  wish  to  ex- 

change one  wife  for  another,  and  have  given  one  of  them  a  talent, 
then  take  not  from  it  anything." 

After  enumerating  the  forbidden  degrees — "but  lawful  for 
you  is  all  besides  this,  for  you  to  seek  them  with  your  wealth, 
marrying  them  and  not  fornicating ;  but  such  of  them  as  you  have 
enjoyed,  give  them  their  hire  as  a  lawful  due;  for  there  is  no 
crime  in  you  about  what  ye  agree  between  you  after  such  lawful 
due,  verily,  God  is  knowing  and  wise.  Men  stand  supe- 

rior to  women  in  that  God  hath  preferred  some  of  them  over 
others,  and  in  that  they  expend  of  their  wealth :  and  the  virtuous 
woman,  devoted,  careful  (in  their  husband's)  absence,  as  God  has 
cared  for  them.  But  those  whose  perverseness  ye  fear,  admonish 
them  and  remove  them  into  bedchambers  and  beat  them;  but  if 
they  submit  to  you,  then  do  not  seek  a  way  against  them;  verily, 
God  is  high  and  great." 

The  Koran  also  says  that  all  male  and  female  slaves  taken  as 
plunder  in  war  are  the  lawful  property  of  their  master;  that  the 
master  hath  power  to  take  to  himself  any  female  slave  either 
married  or  single;  that  the  position  of  a  slave  is  as  helpless  as 
that  of  the  stone  idols  of  Arabia ;  but  that  they  should  be  treated 
with  kindness  and  granted  their  freedom  when  they  are  able  to 
ask  for  and  pay  for  it. 

Among  the  lowest  nations  the  woman  is  the  prey  of  the  strong- 
est ;  the  spoil  of  war  or  ambush ;  the  slave  of  the  victor  or  thief ; 
she  has  no  recognized  rights  and  is  practically  one  of  the  domes- 
tic animals  and  like  them  may  be  sold  or  killed  according  to  the 
will  of  the  man.  Under  such  conditions  woman  is  a  ware,  an  ob- 
ject of  barter  or  sale,  a  thing  to  satisfy  men's  lusts,  and  to  work. 
To  what  extent  this  inferiority  of  the  woman  exists  may  be  seen 
in  the  cruel  barbarity  with  which  she  is  treated  as  a  beast  of  bur- 
den in  some  parts  of  Africa  (Fig.  28). 

Slavery,  and  worse,  has  been  the  fate  of  women  in  later  times 
as  well.  In  medieval  wars  girls  and  women  were  as  much  part  of 
the  legitimate  booty  of  war  as  valuables  of  any  other  kind,  and 
this  illustrates  a  scene  where  two  girls  are  part  of  the  plunder 
acquired  in  this  way  (Fig.  29).  Civilized  mankind  flattered  itself 
that  such  things  had  ceased  to  be  possible  amongst  themselves 


80 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


until  the  unspeakable  Hun  under  the  leadership  of  a  madman, 
reintroduced  this  medieval  conception  and  enforced  the  slavery 
of  Belgian  girls  and  women  as  the  legitimate  prey  of  the  bar- 
barian Huns  of  modern  days. 

In  the  records  of  Babylon,  recently  uncovered,  was  found  a 
boast  by  Ashur-natsir-pal,  III,  an  Assyrian  king : 

"With  battle  and  slaughter  I  attacked  the  city  and  captured 
it.  Three  thousand  of  their  fighting  men  I  slew  with  the  sword; 
their  spoil,  their  goods,  their  oxen  and  their  sheep  I  carried  away ; 
many  captives  I  burned  with  fire. 


Fig.  28. — A  chaiii-gang  of  women  slaves  as  burden  carriers,  a  common  scene  in  Portu- 
guese Africa. 

' '  I  captured  many  of  their  soldiers  alive ;  I  cut  off.  the  hands 
and  feet  of  some;  of  others  I  cut  off  the  noses,  the  ears,  and  the 
fingers ;  I  put  out  the  eyes  of  many  soldiers.  I  built  up  a  pyramid 
of  the  living  and  a  pyramid  of  heads.  On  high  I  hung  up  their 
heads  on  trees.  *  Their  young  men  and  their  maidens  I 

burned  with  fire. ' ' 

Cruelties  of  this  kind  characterized  mankind  for  ages.  Im- 
paling on  pointed  stakes,  cutting  out  tongues,  cutting  off  noses, 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  81 

ears,  lips,  hands  and  feet,  gouging  out  eyes,  tearing  off  breasts 
with  pincers,  hanging  up  naked  bodies  by  the  feet  and  tearing  off 
the  flesh  with  sharp  hooks,  breaking  on  the  wheel,  etc.,  were  com- 
mon punishments.  In  1314  A.D.  the  French  King  Philip  ordered 
some  offenders  to  be  executed  by  flaying  alive,  dragging  over  a 
new-mown  wheat  field,  next,  cutting  off  the  privates  and  then 
quartering  them. 

We  read  in  II  Kings,  viii,  12:  "And  Hazael  said,  Why  weep- 
eth  my  lord!  And  he  (Elisha)  answered,  Because  I  know  the 
evil  that  thou  wilt  do  unto  the  children  of  Israel;  their  strong 
holds  wilt  thou  set  on  fire,  and  their  young  men  wilt  thou  slay 


- 


Fig.  29. — "The  Captain's  Share,"  from  painting  by  E.  de  Beaumont. 

with  the  sword,  and  wilt  dash  their  children,  and  rip  up  their 
women  Avith  child." 

II  Kings,  xv,  1C:  "Then  Menahem  smote  Tiphsah 
and  all  the  women  therein  that  were  with  child  he  ripped  up." 

Hosea,  xiii,  16:  "Samaria  shall  become  desolate; 
their  infants  shall  be  dashed  to  pieces,  and  their  women  with  child 
shall  be  ripped  up." 

Amos  i,  13:  "Thus  saith  the  Lord;  for  three  transgressions 
of  the  children  of  Ammon,  and  for  four,  I  will  not  turn  away  the 
punishment  thereof :  because  they  have  ripped  up  the  women  with 
child  *  *  *  ." 

Modern  Turks  or  Kurds  have  done  the  same  to  Armenian 


82  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

women,  adding  thereto  the  preliminary  outrage  of  laying  bets  on 
the  sex  of  the  embryo  while  the  woman  had  to  stand  by,  and  then 
cutting  the  woman  open  and  taking  out  the  embryo  to  decide  the 
bets. 

But  this  subjection  of  the  woman  to  the  lust  and  cruelty  of 
man  was,  in  the  plan  of  evolution  (if  there  was  a  teleological 
plan?),  a  mighty  factor  in  raising  humankind  from  savagery  to 
civilization,  for  it  produced  in  womankind  all  those  gentler  traits, 
which,  cumulatively  transmitted  by  heredity  from  generation  to 
generation,  have  made  civilization  possible.  Sexual  dependence 
on  the  pleasures  of  the  man  subdued  the  animal  passions  in  the 
female  and  brought  about  that  sensual  apathy  in  woman  which 
is  the  main  preserver  of  virtue  and  morality ;  and  the  fear  felt  by 
woman  for  man  eventually  developed  a  dread  of  violence,  a  gen- 
tleness and  sympathy  for  the  oppressed  and  suffering,  and  that 
submissiveness  to  authority  which  allowed  the  gentler  arts  and 
religions  of  civilization  to  develop;  it  made  possible  the  great 
achievements  in  charity  and  helpfulness  which  finds  its  noblest 
expression  just  now  in  the  activities  of  the  Red  Cross  organiza- 
tion. 

In  some  lands  the  husband  had,  and  still  has,  the  right  to 
whip  his  wife  and  children  if  they  needed  chastisement  in  his 
judgment,  and  this  whipping  was  often  given  for  disobedience, 
or  because  she  displeased  him  in  any  way ;  and  quite  recently  de- 
cisions were  given  in  some  of  our  own  courts  that  this  right  still 
existed  in  some  parts  of  the  United  States! 

In  England  this  right  was  formerly  restricted  by  certain  reg- 
ulations, such  as  that  the  husband  must  not  use  a  stick  thicker 
than  his  thumb.  But  in  Russia  there  was  not,  and  is  not  now, 
any  such  limitation,  although  the  birch  rods  which  are  a  part  of 
the  bride's  trousseau  and  which  she  dutifully  presents  to  her  hus- 
band as  soon  as  they  are  alone  after  the  wedding  festivities,  are 
the  implements  most  commonly  used. 

The  Lupercalia  were  Roman  festivals  which  will  be  described 
later.  One  feature  of  these  festivals  was,  that  matrons  and  girls 
ran  about  naked  so  that  they  could  be  whipped  on  the  bare  poste- 
riors with  thongs  of  dog-skin.  This  was  supposed  to  insure  good 
health,  fecundity,  and  easy  childbirth. 

This  idea  is  kept  alive  among  the  women  of  many  parts  of 
Europe,  and  is  probably  the  reason  why  they  submit  to  whippings. 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  83 

In  Russia,  and  adjacent  lands,  especially,  the  superstition  has 
been  impressed  on  the  minds  of  the  girls  that  these  whippings  are 
essential  to  their  becoming  happy  wives  and  healthy  mothers. 
A  woman  whose  husband  does  not  whip  her  thinks  he  does  not 
love  her. 

In  Poland,  for  the  same  reason,  the  bride  is  driven  to  the 
nuptial  bed  with  a  rod  of  fir  by  her  matron  friends. 

In  a  work  on  this  subject  published  in  1898  in  Dresden,  it  is 
stated  that  "domestic  discipline"  is  considered  very  leniently  by 
the  courts  in  all  parts  of  Europe  (in  fact,  "everywhere  except  in 
America").  Formerly  the  right  of  the  husband  to  whip  his  wife 
was  formally  in  the  written  laws,  but  nowadays  it  is  only  tacitly 
recognized.  In  Germany,  as  late  as  1898,  a  husband  might  whip 
his  wife  on  the  bare  posterior  in  the  presence  of  the  servants,  if 
the  master  (or  husband)  thought  fit  to  chastise  her.  Can  we 
wonder  much  at  the  brutality  of  the  German  soldiery  in  Belgium, 
France  and  Armenia  in  the  present  war ! 

In  some  parts  of  Europe  both  the  female  animals  and  the 
women  and  maids  of  the  household  are  whipped  on  their  bared 
genitals  by  the  men  of  the  household  on  Halloween  eve;  this  is 
supposed  to  insure  fertility,  easy  delivery  and  healthy  offspring. 

While  such  practices  are  not  definitely  stated  as  permissible, 
they  are  not  recognized  as  legal  causes  of  complaint  against  the 
husband,  or  as  causes  for  divorce ;  they  are  therefore  accepted  by 
the  women  as  natural  and  matter-of-fact  consequences  of  being 
women  and  wives,  and  no  complaints  are  made.  By  the  men  these 
whippings  are  inflicted  as  a  matter  of  right  appertaining  to  their 
status  as  men  and  as  husbands. 

But  the  most  degrading  example  of  this  subjection  of  the  wife 
was  to  be  seen  in  the  use  of  the  so-called  "chastity  belts"  of  the 
middle  ages — metal  frames  which  were  fastened  with  padlock 
and  key  about  the  waist  and  pelvis  of  the  wife  by  the  husband,  to 
prevent  her  from  any  chance  of  having  illicit  intercourse  with 
some  other  man  (Fig.  30).  These  belts  or  harnesses  were  in  use 
as  late  as  a  century  or  two  ago,  and  many  of  them  are  still  shown 
in  European  museums. 

It  is  related  that  during  the  crusades,  a  German  emperor  had 
a  blacksmith  rivet  an  iron  frame  on  his  wife,  the  queen,  to  insure 
her  chastity  until  he  would  return  from  the  campaign  against  the 
Saracens. 


84 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


Some  authors  state  that  mothers  in  primitive  communities 
in  Europe  still  safeguard  their  daughters  in  a  similar  manner. 

It  has  also  been  stated  that  in  Oriental  harems  when  hus- 
bands permit  a  wife  or  odalisque  to  visit  a  friend  and  they  have 
no  eunuch  slave  to  send  with  them  as  a  guard,  they  fasten  an 
arrangement  on  them  which  consists  of  a  belt  that  goes  about  the 
waist ;  to  the  back  of  this  is  attached  an  iron  or  leather  band  that 
passes  through  a  hole  in  a  round  wooden  stick  about  four  or  five 
inches  from  one  end ;  this  end  of  the  stick  is  pushed  in  the  vagina 


Fig.  ,°>0. — Medieval    chastity    belts.      Many    of    these   belts    can    be    seen    in    European 

museums. 

and  the  band  is  brought  up  in  front,  tightly  drawn  up  and  locked 
to  the  belt  so  that  the  wood  can  not  be  removed  from  the  vagina. 
The  lower  end  of  the  wood  extends  to  the  knees,  so  that  the  woman 
is  necessarily  and  uncomfortably  reminded  that  she  belongs  to 
her  husband  or  master. 

A  similar  idea,  but  not  so  brutally  expressed,  was  the  custom 
of  Roman  unmarried  women  of  wearing  the  zona  or  zona  virgi- 
nalis,  or  belt  or  girdle  worn  about  the  loins  or  abdomen  to  indi- 


SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP  85 

cate  the  limit  to  which  the  abdomen  might  expand  in  a  virgin ;  on 
the  marriage  day  this  girdle  was  loosened  or  removed  by  the  hus- 
band to  indicate  a  permission  that  the  abdomen  could  now  enlarge 
in  pregnancy.  At  Troezen  (now  the  village  of  Damala)  there  was 
in  ancient  times  a  temple  to  Venus  Apaturia,  at  which  Troezenian 
maidens  dedicated  their  girdles  before  their  marriage  day. 

Everywhere,  to  this  day,  orthodox  marriage  rituals  demand 
of  the  bride  that  she  shall  promise  "to  obey;"  also,  she  is  re- 
minded that  formerly  she  was  a  slave  and  to  a  certain  extent,  still 
is  so,  by  the  custom  of  a  male  relative  ' '  giving  the  bride  away. ' ' 

The  Bible  abounds  in  declarations  as  to  the  attitude  of  the 
man  towards  the  woman  and  of  the  woman's  duty  to  man,  and  the 
place  she  shall  hold  in  the  family  and  the  community.  It  teaches 
that  the  woman  was  made  for  the  pleasure  and  convenience  of  the 
man;  it  broadly  asserts  as  a  fundamental  principle  the  subjection 
and  inferiority  of  woman.  It  teaches  that  "the  man  is  the  head 
of  the  woman,"  that  she  must  learn  in  silence  and  in  all  subjec- 
tion, and  that  the  woman,  the  wife,  must  submit  herself  to  man, 
the  husband,  "in  all  tilings,"  which  of  course  includes  submission 
to  his  sexual  appetites  and  demands. 

Let  me  quote  a  few  passages  from  the  Bible :  I  Cor.  xi,  3— 
"But  I  would  have  you  know  that  the  head  of  every  man  is  Christ; 
and  the  head  of  the  woman  is  man,  and  the  head  of  Christ  is 
God." 

xi.  7,  9:  "The  man  is  the  image  and  glory  of  God,  but  the 
woman  is  the  glory  of  man.  Neither  was  the  man  created  for  the 
woman ;  but  the  woman  for  the  man. ' ' 

I  Tim.  ii,  11-13:  "Let  the  woman  learn  in  silence,  with  all 
subjection.  For  I  suffer  not  a  woman  to  teach  or  usurp  authority 
over  the  man,  but  to  be  in  silence.  For  Adam  was  first  formed, 
then  Eve." 

Ephes.  v,  22  and  24:  "Wives,  submit  yourselves  unto  your 
husbands  as  unto  the  Lord.  Therefore,  as  the  church  is  subject 
unto  Christ,  so  let  the  wives  be  to  their  husbands  in  everything." 
(Also;  Col.  iii,  18.) 

I  Peter  iii,  1:  "Likewise,  ye  wives,  be  in  subjection  to  your 
own  husbands." 

I  Cor.  xiv,  35:  "And  if  women  will  learn  anything,  let  them 
ask  their  husbands  at  home." 


86  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

The  teachings  above  quoted  are  the  platforms  of  the  churches 
today  !*  They  have  never  been  recalled,  and  according  to  the  teach- 
ings of  the  churches  there  is  no  power  to  recall  them  or  to  abro- 
gate or  modify  them  in  any  way,  because  they  are  "the  word  of 
God."  They  are  a  well-considered  and  logical  system,  taught  by 
the  Asiatics  nineteen  hundred  years  ago,  to  keep  their  women 
contented  to  be  slaves  in  the  harem;  and  they  have  been  kept  up 
by  the  selfish  interests  of  men  to  apply  to  the  educated  women  of 
today.  These  teachings  rest  directly  on  the  Old  Testament,  on 
the  curse  pronounced  on  woman  in  the  writings  of  Moses,  an  Ori- 
ental, about  3400  years  ago:  Gen.  iii,  6. — "He  (thy  husband) 
shall  rule  over  thee." 

And  yet  women  are  the  main  supporters  and  believers  in  a 
system  of  teachings,  that  would  keep  modern  civilized  woman  in 
the  same  pitiful  subjection  that  was  the  lot  and  still  is  the  lot  of 
Oriental  women  or  harem  slaves  today;  just  as  it  was  when  the 
Bible  was  written  by  Asiatics  several  thousand  years  ago. 

Sapere  Aude!    Dare  to  know!    Dare  to  be  wise! 

I  believe  that  women  have  the  same  right  to  knoiv  that  men 
have ;  I  have  always  believed  so.  It  is  largely  due  to  the  debased 
position  assigned  to  women  that  I  have  lost  faith  in  any  "in- 
spired" nature  of  man-made  Bibles,  whether  they  be  the  sacred 
writings  of  the  Greeks  or  Brahmans,  of  Jews  or  Christians. 

As  was  formerly  the  case  with  slaves — so  with  women!  Ig- 
norance is  the  basis  on  which  depends  their  willing  acquiescence 
in  their  subjection. 

The  last  half  century  has  been  remarkable,  not  only  for  all 
the  inventions  and  material  advancements  which  we  enjoy,  but 
even  more,  for  the  Emancipation  of  Woman  from  the  limitations 
that  have  bound  her  during  all  previous  ages,  and  the  progress 
that  women  have  made  in  extricating  themselves  from  the  intel- 
lectual slavery  which  had  oppressed  them  so  long. 


*Yet  there  are  signs  that  these  teachings  may  change.  The  following  is  from  the  daily 
press  of  November  24,  1918: 

"The  Right  Rev.  Frederick  W.  Keating,  Bishop  of  Northampton,  England,  and  represent- 
ative of  English  Catholics  to  the  golden  jubilee  of  Cardinal  Gibbons  at  Baltimore,  arrived  in  St. 
Louis  yesterday  afternoon  and  addressed  the  Catholic  Women's  League  at  the  Cathedral  auditorium. 

"The  subject  of  the  Bishop's  address  was  'Reconstruction.'  He  said:  'The  war  has  caused 
the  discovery  of  woman,  and  the  discovery  has  given  immense  joy  to  England,  for  women  went 
hand  in  hand  with  the  soldiers  in  winning  the  war.  War  work  has  inspired  English  women  not 
to  be  idlers  and  ornaments,  and  English  women  will  be  intrusted  with  a  great  part  of  the  work  to 
follow  peace.  Already  the  English  women  have  a  program,  and  it  would  be  advisable  for  the 
women  of  this  league  to  take  an  interest  in  it.  They  will  study  social  diseases,  find  out  the  causes, 
discover  remedies  and  tactfully  administer  them.'  " 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


87 


THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY  PROMISES  TO  BE  THE  DAWN 
OF  THE  AGE  OF  WOMAN 

It  is  related  of  Pope  Gregory  the  Great  (540-604  A.D.)  that 
when  he  was  still  a  Benedictine  monk  he  saw  some  English  slaves 
of  marvelous  beauty  exposed  for  sale  in  the  Roman  market.  The 
Roman  usage  was,  as  it  is  now  in  Oriental  slave  markets,  to  ex- 
pose slaves  for  sale  naked  (Fig.  31).  Gregory  was  so  impressed 
with  the  beauty  and  intelligence  of  these  slaves  that  he  said: 

"Non  Angli,  sed  Angeli  sunt!" 

[They  are  not  Anglians  (English)  but  angels!]  and  he  determined 
to  go  to  England  to  convert  that  country  to  Christianity.  Circum- 
stances prevented  this,  however. 


Fig.  31. — Ancient  Roman  slave  market,  from  painting  by  Boulanger. 

So,  when  we  contemplate  modern  women,  we  feel  tempted  to 
say  " Angelae*  sunt!"  (They  are  angels.) 

When  St.  Paul  wrote  that  the  woman  should  be  subordinated 
to  the  man — "for  Adam  was  first  formed,  then  Eve"-— he  knew 
nothing  of  the  modern  science  of  biology.  The  ovum  was  pro- 
duced in  early  forms  of  life  even  before  the  sexes  were  differen- 
tiated, and  in  many  lower  forms  it  can  be  developed  into  a  new 
being  without  impregnation  by  a  male.  If  the  production  of  an 
ovum  constitutes  the  essential  of  femininity,  as  it  undoubtedly 

*As  to  the  sex   of  angels,  we  will   find  explanation  elsewhere. 


SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

does,  then  the  female  ("Eve")  was  formed  ages  before  the  male 
("Adam"). 

The  male  ("Adam,"  to  use  the  Biblical  term)  was  therefore 
not  first  formed,  nor  was  the  male  as  important  as  the  female. 
In  the  process  of  reproduction  the  male's  share  is  so  fleeting  and 
subordinate,  that  if  his  function  was  strictly  limited  to  that  of 
impregnating  the  female,  one  man  might  readily  suffice  for  sev- 
eral hundred  women,  even  as  one  cochineal  male  insect  suffices  for 
several  hundred  female  insects. 

From  the  standpoint  of  modern  science  the  words  of  St.  Paul 
might  well  be  reversed: 

"For  the  Female  (Eve,  woman)  is  not  of  the  Male  (Adam, 
man)  but  the  male  of  the  female.  Neither  was  the  female  created 
for  the  male,  but  the  male  for  the  female." 

Many  men  dread  the  influence  women  will  exert  when  they 
have  equal  political  rights  with  men.  But  where  they  have  the 
right  to  vote,  no  startling  revolutions  have  occurred,  but  only 
orderly  and  well-matured  improvements,  so  far  mainly  in  the  in- 
terest of  women  and  children,  though  through  them  in  the  inter- 
est of  all  humanity. 

And  why  should  we  fear  their  influence?  "Women  are  an- 
gels!" They  are  biologically,  morally,  ethically,  physiologically 
and  probably  intellectually  (at  all  events,  intuitively)  higher  man- 
ifestations of  animal  life  than  men;  and  now,  that  woman  is  per- 
mitted to  share  the  same  educational  privileges  as  man,  she  is 
rapidly  furnishing  proof  f5r  the  claim  that  she  is  mentally 
superior. 

There  is  no  gainsaying  the  truth  of  the  last  line  in  the  follow- 
ing quotation  from  Thomas  Peacock's  poem — The  Visions  of 
Love: 

"To  chase  the  clouds  of  life's  tempestuous  hours, 
To  strew  its  short  but  weary  way  with  flow'rs, 
New  hopes  to  raise,  new  feelings  to  impart, 
And  pour  celestial  balsam  on  the  heart; 
For  this  to  man  was  lovely  woman  giv'n 
The  last,  best  work,  the  noblest  gift  of  Heav'n." 

The  following  comparisons,  taken  from  the  U.  S.  census  of 
1890,  are  of  interest: 


SEX    AND   SEX    WORSHIP  8!) 

U.  S.  POPULATION,  JUNE  1,  1890 

Males    32,067,880 

Females    30,554,370 

INMATES  OF  REFORMATORIES 

Males 11,535 

Females 3,311 

PRISONERS 

Males 75,924 

Females 6,405 

CRIMINALS   AGAINST   PROPERTY 

Males 36,382 

Females 1,325 

CRIMINALS  AGAINST  PERSONS 

Males 16,511 

Females 770 

CRIMINALS  AGAINST  MORALS 

Males 8,001 

Females 2,099 

FEEBLE-MINDED 

Males 52,940 

Females    42,631 

DEAF  AND  DUMB 

Males 22,783 

Females 18,500 

BLIND* 

Males  27,983 

Females     22,428 

INSANE** 

Males 53,264 

Females 52,990 

SUICIDES** 

Males 70  to  85% 

Females 15  to  30% 

COLOR-BLIND! 

Males    4%  of  total 

Females    V6%  of  total 


*Most  blindness  is  caused  by  neglect  of  cleanliness  during  childbirth  and  is  not  a  result  of 
katabolic  tendencies.  These  conditions  of  neglect  will  not  depend  on  the  sex  of  the  expected 
child,  therefore  blindness  ought  to  affect  the  sexes  about  equally.  Yet  the  katabolic  tendency  of 
the  male  makes  them  weaker  in  resisting  unfavorable  conditions,  so  that  blindness  is  more  fre- 
quent in  males  than  in  females. 

The  strictly  defective  conditions,  feeble-minded,  deaf  or  dumb,  stutterers,  etc.,  are  dependent 
on  katabolic  sex-tendencies,  therefore  the  katabolic  tendency  in  the  male  causes  a  larger  number 
of  these  defectives  in  that  sex. 

"These  conditions  are  largely  produced  by  economic  conditions  which  have  always  affected 
females  vastly  more  unfavorably  than  the  males.  We  should  expect  a  far  larger  number  of  insane 
or  suicides  among  women  and  it  is  therefore  a  surprise  to  find  that  women  far  exceed  men  in  keep- 
ing a  well-balanced  mind  in  adversity,  so  that  they  are  far  less  affected  than  men  by  unfavorable 
conditions. 

fNot  from  the  Census,  but  from  a  special  work  on  Color  Blindness. 


90  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

Thus  the  biological  superiority  of  the  Feminine  shows  itself 
in  every  comparison,  and  the  katabolic  male  tendency  shows  itself, 
especially  in  regard  to  insanity,  suicide,  and  crime. 

"0  Woman!     Fairest  of  Creation!     Last  and  best 
Of  all  God's  works!    Creature  in  whom  excelled 
Whatever  can  to  sight  or  thought  be  formed 
Holy,  Divine,  Good,  Amiable  and  Sweet!" 

(Milton.) 

COSMOGONIES 

The  myths  told  about  creation  by  various  people  should  not 
be  mistaken  for  religions;  neither  the  stories  fabled  about  their 
gods.  Only  those  gods  that  are  worshipped  are  to  be  considered 
as  appertaining  to  religion ;  not  those  gods  about  whom  stories  are 
told,  but  to  whom  no  worship  is  given. 

Cosmogonies  are  accounts  of  the  origin  or  creation  of  the 
world  and  of  the  living  creatures  thereon,  as  found  in  the  differ- 
ent Bibles  of  mankind,  or  told  by  different  people.  AVe  will  first 
consider  the  cosmogony  in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  which  is 
generally  ascribed  to  Moses. 

We  can  not  expect  these  cosmogonies  to  be  scientifically  cor- 
rect, unless  we  assume  that  God  himself  narrated  how  he  made 
the  world.  Enough  has  been  said  to  indicate  that  scientists  reject 
this  claim,  and  believe  that  such  accounts  are  subject  to  criticism, 
like  all  other  works  that  assume  to  present  scientific  facts. 

Another  reason  why  we  can  not  positively  condemn  any  ex- 
planation of  creation  is,  that  our  own  views  are  mainly  "the- 
ories," or  ideas  in  regard  to  certain  subjects  that  may  or  may 
not  be  true. 

Some  of  these  theories,  from  their  very  natures,  are  not  sub- 
ject to  proof ;  the  most  we  can  claim  for  them  is  that  they  are  the 
most  plausible  theories  that  have  been  proposed. 

Our  experience  with  the  evolution  of  science  should  make  us 
quite  modest  as  to  any  claims  of  absolute  truth  for  any  theories 
we  now  hold ;  for  no  theory  seems  to  be  so  firmly  established  that 
there  have  not  been,  or  are  not  now,  writers  who  raise  objections 
to  it. 

The  author  of  Genesis  is  generally  said  to  have  been  Moses, 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  91 

who  lived  about  1500  B.C.  In  comparison  with  the  age  of  mankind, 
he  lived  in  quite  recent  times,  and  the  philosophers  or  scientists 
of  his  days  had  made  great  headway  in  learning,  as  we  know  from 
the  history  of  contemporaneous  philosophies  of  the  Greeks,  etc. 
We  are  told  that  Moses,  although  a  Jew,  was  brought  up  by  a 
daughter  of  Pharaoh  (Exodus  ii,  10) ;  he  was  no  doubt  educated 
in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  ancient  Egyptians,  so  that  his  account  of 
the  creation  of  the  world  represents,  to  a  great  extent  at  least, 
the  Egyptian  views  on  this  subject  in  his  time.  The  account  in 
Genesis  has  usually  been  rejected  totally  by  scientists;  a  close 
examination,  especially  if  we  do  not  insist  on  a  literal  interpreta- 
tion, or  on  the  literalness  of  the  "seven  days"  gives  us  a  much 
higher  idea  of  its  merits. 

I  will  quote  some  statements  from  Genesis  and  follow  them 
with  some  explanatory  remarks. 

Gen.  i,  1:  "In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and  the 
earth."  We  may  accept  this  as  correct,  if  we  make  the  meaning 
of  the  word  "God"  wide  enough  to  embrace  any  agency  that 
caused  the  production  or  creation  of  the  earth.  Herbert  Spencer 
says  of  this  Power  that  it  is  Unknowable;  if  Herbert  Spencer 
failed  to  comprehend  the  "Great  First  Cause,"  others  will  be 
excusable  if  they  fail  to  explain  it. 

The  name  which  is  most  frequently  used  for  the  God  of  the 
Bible  is  Jehovah.  Among  the  ancient  Jews  it  was  more  nearly 
Jahw  or  Jaliwe  (Yah we)  or  Jhoh.  The  ancient  Jews  considered 
the  name  so  sacred  that  it  was  sacrilegious  to  pronounce  it;  the 
injunction  (Exod.  xx,  7)  "Thou  shalt  not  take  the  name  of  the 
Lord  thy  God  in  vain,"  was  construed  to  mean,  not  to  pronounce 
the  name  at  all,  so  that  the  readers  (cantors)  in  the  Jewish  syn- 
agogues always  said  "Adonai"  when  the  written  text  was  Yahwe. 
The  name  means  "he  who  causes  to  be"  or  "the  Creator." 

Lately,  Electricity  has  been  claimed  to  be  the  cause  of  Grav- 
itation, of  the  union  of  "ions"  and  "atoms"  in  chemical  union, 
of  the  undulations  causing  the  phenomena  of  light  and  heat,  etc. ; 
some  would  explain  creation  as  the  result  of  electricity ;  this  would 
make  the  terms  "electricity"  and  "God"  synonymous.  The  vast 
majority  of  people  will  agree  that  "God"  (whoever  or  whatever 
he  may  be)  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth. 


92  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

"There  is  no  God,  but  God,  the  living, 
the  self-sustaining." 

(Koran.) 

"Father  of  All!  in  ev'ry  age, 

In  ev'ry  clime  ador'd 
By  Saint,  by  Savage,  and  by  Sage, 
Jehovah,  Jove*  or  Lord." 

(Pope.) 

Gen.  i,  2:  "And  the  earth  was  without  form  and  void."  Mod- 
ern scientists  say  that  this  was  the  condition  of  the  earth  when 
it  was  in  its  nebular  state — "in  the  beginning." 

Gen.  i,  2:  "And  the  Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the  face  of 
the  waters."  "Waters"  possibly  means  "fluids,"  as  this  is 
claimed  by  some  authorities  to  be  a  more  correct  translation;  if 
so,  this  might  be  construed  to  refer  to  the.  earth  when  it  had  con- 
densed from  a  nebular  consistence  to  a  liquid  or  molten  condition, 
or  when  it  was  no  longer  gaseous.  Whatever  we  may  understand 
by  the  "spirit  of  God,"  when  matter  had  been  assembled,  force 
acted  upon  it,  motion  resulted  and  the  earth  commenced  to  ro- 
tate. The  obloid  shape  of  our  globe  proves  that  it  rotated  be- 
fore it  became  rigidly  solid. 

Gen.  i,  3:  "And  God  said,  Let  there  be  light,  and  there  was 
light."  The  nebular  mass  in  which  sun,  earth,  and  all  planets  were 
still  undifferentiated  glowed  with  a  light  consisting  of  only  a  few 
vibrations  in  the  blue  and  green  parts  of  the  spectrum,  but  it  was 
not  the  light  of  the  sun.  Later,  when  the  earth  had  cooled  so  that 
the  gaseous  form  had  changed  to  liquid,  this  melted  material 
glowed  with  light  which  had  a  perfect  spectrum. 

Gen.  i,  4:  "And  God  saw  the  light,  that  it  was  good."  Gen. 
i,  9,  10:  "And  God  said,  Let  the  waters  under  the  heavens  be 
gathered  together  unto  one  place  and  let  the  dry  land  appear;  and 
it  was  so."  It  may  be,  that  when  the  melted  mass  which  became 
our  globe  began  to  cool,  the  scoriae  or  dross  gathered  in  a  single 
sheet  on  the  outside,  just  as  the  formation  of  crystals  is  apt  to 
proceed  from  the  first  solid  particle  that  occurs  in  a  solution. 
The  materials  of  which  these  scoriae  consisted  were  much  lighter 
than  the  metals  which  constitute  the  interior  of  our  globe;  the 


*The  similarity  between  the  Jewish  name  for  God — Jhov  or  Yahwe  and  the  word  stem  of  the 
Latin   name  for  Jupiter — Jov — is  striking,   and   may  signify  the  same   name. 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  J)3 

specific  gravity  of  our  earth  is  far  greater  than  the  specific  grav- 
ity of  any  of  our  surface  rocks. 

This  sheet  of  floating  scoriae  afterwards  broke  apart  where 
the  Atlantic  Ocean  now  is,  and  the  momentum  from  the  revolu- 
tion of  the  earth  caused  the  heavier  mass  to  gradually  drift  east- 
ward. When  the  melted  matters  underneath  cooled  off  sufficiently 
for  the  globe  to  become  rigid,  this  left  the  continents  composed 
of  the  scoriae,  elevated  above  the  surface  of  the  metal  mass,  be- 
cause they  were  lighter.  That  they  were  originally  one  sheet  of 
crust  or  scoriae  appears  from  the  fact  that  the  eastern  edge  of 
the  western  continent  fits  into  the  western  edge  of  the  eastern 
continent.  Between  these  elevated  masses  of  scoriae  were  the  de- 
pressions in  which  the  waters  gathered  when  the  earth  had  become 
sufficiently  cool  to  allow  the  waters  to  remain. 

The  earth  had  cooled  sufficiently  for  the  first  solid  land  to 
appear — the  azoic  rocks ;  and  the  vast  amount  of  water  which  had 
been  in  the  atmosphere  in  the  form  of  clouds  was  precipitated  in 
torrents,  and  gathered  together  in  the  depressions  to  form  the 
oceans. 

Gen.  i,  11:  "And  God  said,  Let  the  earth  bring  forth  grass, 
and  herb  yielding  seed  after  his  kind,  and  the  tree  yielding  fruit 
after  his  kind,  ivhose  seed  is  in  itself,  upon  the  earth;  and  it  ivas 
so."  The  main  difference  between  plants  and  animals  is  that 
plants  can  assimilate  inorganic  food,  animals  can  not.  Plants 
therefore  had  to  appear  before  animals  could  live.  Moreover,  the 
atmosphere  must  at  first  have  contained  too  much  carbon  dioxide 
to  allow  respiration  by  animals,  and  carbon  dioxide  was  food  for 
plants. 

But  this  verse  is  of  great  importance  otherwise;  it  does  not 
say  that  God  created  plants,  but  it  says  "Let  the  earth  bring 
forth."  This  justifies  the  theory  of  evolution  which  is  merely  an 
effort  to  explain  "how  the  earth  produced."  The  word  "earth" 
does  not  here  mean  soil,  but  the  terrestrial  globe;  plants  in  the 
water,  algae,  etc.,  grew,  as  well  as  plants  on  the  dry  land. 

Gen.  i,  12:  "And  the  earth  brought  forth  grass,  and  herbs;" 
and  "God  saw  that  it  was  good."  The  growing  plants  absorbed 
carbon  dioxide  and  liberated  the  oxygen,  fixing  the  carbon  in 
the  tissues  of  the  plants,  which  became  modified  to  coal  later  on. 
This  rendered  the  air  fit  for  animal  respiration.  The  atmosphere 
must  at  first  have  been  densely  filled  with  watery  vapors  or  clouds, 


94  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

extending  hundreds  or  thousands  of  miles  farther  into  space  than 
our  atmosphere  extends  now;  the  sun's  rays  could  not  penetrate 
this  atmosphere,  except  just  enough  to  cause  a  perpetual  twilight 
to  prevail;  but  it  was  enough  light  for  the  growth  of  the  plants. 

Gen.  i,  14, 15:  "And  God  said,  Let  there  be  lights  in  the  firma- 
ment of  the  heaven,  to  divide  the  day  from  the  night;  and  let 
them  be  for  signs  and  for  seasons,  and  for  days  and  years.  And 
let  them  be  for  lights  in  the  firmament  of  the  heaven  to  give  light 
upon  the  earth;  and  it  ivas  so."  Note  that  " heaven"  is  used  here 
in  the  old  Greek  sense — not  in  the  Christian  theological  sense. 
The  vapor  had  by  this  time  condensed  sufficiently  to  allow  the  sun 
and  moon  to  be  seen  on  the  surface  of  the  earth,  if  there  had  been 
eyes  to  see  them.  Therefore  the  "days"  mentioned  in  the  cos- 
mogony were  not  our  ordinary  solar  days,  but  periods  of  time. 
The  ordinary  days  and  years  and  seasons,  etc.,  were  not  "cre- 
ated" till  on  the  "fourth  day,"  or  fourth  period,  of  the  Genesis 
account. 

Gen.  i,  20-22:  "And  God  said,  Let  the  waters  bring  forth 
abundantly  the  moving  creature  that  hath  life,  and  fowl  that  may 
fly  above  the  earth  in  the  open  firmament  of  heaven.  And  God 
created  great  ivhales  and  every  living  creature  that  moveth,  which 
the  waters  brought  forth  abundantly  after  their  hind,  and  every 
winged,  fowl  after  his  kind;  and  God  saw  that  it  was  good.  And 
God  blessed  them,  saying,  Be  fruitful  and  multiply  and  fill  the 
waters  in  the  seas,  and  let  foivl  multiply  in  the  earth."  This 
again  says  that  the  "waters  brought  forth,"  disclaiming  any  spe- 
cial creative  acts  of  God,  and  justifying  the  theory  of  evolution. 
It  does  not  conflict  with  the  statements  of  the  scientists  that  the 
first  animal  life  occurred  in  the  waters,  and  it  endorses  the  rota- 
tion in  which  the  animal  organisms  followed  each  other — mollusks 
in  the  Age  of  Mollusks,  fishes  in  the  Devonian  Age,  plants  in  the 
Carboniferous  Age,  and  the  reptiles  of  the  Reptilian  Age,  includ- 
ing the  flying  saurians,  and  finally  the  birds. 

The  carboniferous  age  had  completed  the  purification  of  the 
atmosphere,  so  that  the  earth  was  fit  for  the  respiration  of  ter- 
restrial life. 

Gen.  i,  24:  "And  God  said,  Let  the  earth  bring  forth  the 
living  creature  after  his  hind,  cattle  and  creeping  thing  and  beast 
of  the  earth  after  his  hind;  and  it  ivas  so."  This  ushers  in  the 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP  95 

Age  of  Mammals;  also  by  the  process  of  evolution,  by  means  of 
"the  earth  bringing  forth." 

Gen.  i,  26-28:  "And  God  said,  Let  us  make  man  in  our  own 
image,  after  our  own  likeness;  *  *  So  God  created  man  in 

his  own  image,  in  the  image  of  God  created  he  him;  male  and  fe- 
male created  he  them.  And  God  blessed  them,  and  God  said  unto 
them,  Be  fruitful,  and  multiply,  and  replenish  the  earth."  To 
whom  did  God  speak  when  he  said:  "Let  us  make!"  The  Bible 
does  not  definitely  say  that  there  is  only  one  god ;  Jehovah  was  a 
tribal  god,  "the  God  of  Israel,"  and  he  may  have  been  represented 
as  talking  to  the  other  gods — the  gods  of  the  neighboring  tribes 
in  the  time  of  Moses;  or  he  may  have  used  the  "editorial  we." 
Both  views  have  been  held  by  different  commentators. 

Valentinus  (an  Egyptian  Christian,  about  140  A.D.)  believed 
that  God  did  not  make  the  world  himself,  but  merely  commanded 
a  demiurge  to  do  this  for  him;  this  would  imply  that  God  spoke 
to  his  demiurge,  when  he  said  "we." 

Gen.  i,  31:  (<And  God  saw  everything  that  he  had  made  and 
behold  it  was  very  good."  Omitting  all  references  to  supernat- 
ural agencies  and  to  the  mystical  number  6  which  is  so  prominent 
a  part  of  this  ancient  account  of  the  genesis  of  our  earth  and  of 
the  life  upon  it,  we  see  that  it  is  a  fairly  correct  account  of  what 
we  moderns  consider  the  process  to  have  been,  and  it  impresses  us 
with  the  superiority  of  Moses'  account  of  the  Creation  of  the 
World  over  all  other  accounts,  some  of  which  are  more  or  less 
silly  and  even  grotesque  accounts  given  by  the  writers  of  other 
nations,  a  few  of  which  accounts  we  will  consider  further  on. 

But  it  is  not  certain  that  Moses  composed  any  of  the  books 
generally  known  as  the  "Five  Books  of  Moses"  or  the  "Penta- 
teuch ; "  in  fact,  it  is  conceded  by  nearly  all  critical  commentators 
that  he  did  not  write,  any  of  the  books,  or  even  compose  them  in 
their  present  shape,  to  be  handed  down  orally  as  the  law.  While 
it  is  a  Jewish  tradition  that  he  was  the  author  of  these  books, 
there  is  no  proof  for  such  a  statement. 

Suppose  then  that  we  accept  the  dictum  of  qualified  judges, 
that  Ezra,  the  Prophet,  first  gathered  the  oral  or  legendary  his- 
tory of  the  Jews,  sometime  after  the  Babylonian  captivity,*  and 
reduced  the  traditions  or  folklore  to  written  "books"  which  were 


*The  Babylonian  captivity  occurred  from  597  to  538  B.C.      Ezra  wrote  about  445  B.C.,   or  about 
1050  years  after  the  time   of  Moses. 


90  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

ascribed  to  Moses ;  it  is  highly  probable  that  Ezra  not  only  gath- 
ered them,  but  brought  them  up  to  date,  in  which  latter  case  he 
may  have  modified  the  record  to  include  the  advancements  in 
learning  that  had  been  made  by  Chaldean,  Assyrian  and  Babylo- 
nian scholars. 

At  all  events,  if  we  omit  the  references  to  the  supernatural, 
and  to  the  "days,"  the  account  is  not  a  poor  or  irrational  state- 
ment of  the  genesis  of  the  earth  as  it  is  conceived  by  modern  sci- 
ence. We  must  bear  in  mind  that  our  own  "scientific"  accounts 
of  these  occurrences  are  merely  plausible  theories,  for  we  have 
no  definite  or  absolute  knowledge  of  how  the  earth  was  created. 
Even  if  Moses  is  the  author  of  Genesis,  he  was  not  present  at  the 
creation,  and  therefore  had  no  better  personal  knowledge  than 
we  have  of  "the  beginning,"  and  scientific  men  reject  the  idea  of 
any  supernatural  "inspiration." 

Moses  lived  about  1500  B.C.  ;  the  account  in  Genesis  which  is 
generally  ascribed  to  him  was  orally  transmitted  for  more  than 
a  thousand  years,  to  about  450  B.C.,  when  it  was  reduced  to  writ- 
ing by  Ezra,  a  Babylonian  prophet,  who  was  no  doubt  well  versed 
in  the  learning  of  the  Assyrians  and  Babylonians  some  of  whose 
writings  have  been  recently  found  to  contain  the  story  of  the  flood, 
the  legend  of  Sargon,  which  was  a  story  similar  to  that  of  Moses, 
etc.,  which  stories  were  ages  older  than  the  stories  told  by  the 
Jews,  and  which  antedated  Moses  by  more  than  two  thousand 
years. 

From  The  Legend  of  Sargon 
(Babylonian,  3800  B.C.) 

"Sargon,  the  mighty  king,  the  king  of  Agade,  am  I. 
My  mother  was  a  princess,  my  father  I  know  not. 
My  mother,  the  princess,  conceived  me;  in  a  secret  place  she 

gave  me  birth, 

She  placed  me  in  a  basket  of  reeds,  and  closed  the  lid  with  pitch, 
She  cast  me  in  the  river  which  overwhelmed  me  not. 
The  river  bore  me  along.    To  Akki,  the  irrigator,  it  brought  me. 
Akki,  the  irrigator,  reared  me  to  boyhood  as  his  own  son. 
Akki,  the  irrigator,  made  me  his  gardener. 
And  in  my  gardenership  the  Goddess  Ishtar  loved  me, 
( )  four  years  I  ruled  the  kingdom. ' ' 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  97 

THE  "DAYS"  OF  GENESIS 

Orthodox  believers  claim  that  the  week  is  founded  on  the 
story  that  God  created  heaven  and  earth  in  six  days  and  rested 
on  the  seventh  day.  Such  is  not  "a  fact"  however,  because  the 
week,  as  we  have  it  now,  is  ages  older  than  the  account  of  Crea- 
tion in  Genesis. 

Several  nations  not  directly  related  to  the  ancient  Israelites 
had  similar  views  in  regard  to  Creation. 

The  Koran  says  in  Chapter  L:  "We  did  create  the  heaven  and 
the  earth  and  what  is  between  the  two  in  six*  days,  and  no  weari- 
ness touched  us." 

This  almost  sounds  as  if  Mohammed  either  wrote  this  to 
show  that  Allah  is  greater  than  Jehovah  and  did  not  need  a  "day 
of  rest,"  or  that  he  wrote  it  simply  in  accord  with  the  idea  of  the 
"perfection"  of  the  number  six  in  his  mind.  It  is  generally  con- 
ceded that  Mohammed  based  much  of  the  Koran  on  Jewish,  Chris- 
tian, Gnostic,  Manichaean  and  other  religions  of  neighboring 
people. 

In  Etruria  (Greece),  it  was  believed  that  God  created  the 
universe  in  six  periods  of  time  of  one  thousand  years  each.  Man 
was  created  after  sun,  moon  and  the  planets  and  plants  and  ani- 
mals had  been  created. 

The  ancient  Persians  thought  that  Ormuzd,  the  God  of  Light, 
created  the  world  by  his  word  or  command,  in  six*  periods  of 
1000  years  each. 

Compare  with  this  the  fourth  verse  of  the  90th  psalm:  "For 
a  thousand  years  in  thy  sight  are  but  as  yesterday  when  it  is  past, 
and  as  a  watch  in  the  night."  It  is  but  a  figurative  way  of  saying 
"a  very  long  time." 

Sun-worship  in  some  form  or  other  was  practiced  by  nearly 
all  primitive  or  ancient  peoples,  and  the  course  of  the  sun  in 
the  heavens  and  the  succession  of  the  seasons,  were  the  origin  of 
the  "year;"  as  the  Bible  expresses  it  (Gen.  i,  14) :  "Let  there  be 
lights  in  the  heaven,  to  divide  the  day  from  the  night;  and  let 
them  be  for  signs,  and  for  seasons,  and  for  days  and  years." 

There  may  have  been  other  modes  of  counting  years;  an 

•For  the  significance  of  "six"  see  page   104. 


98  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

ancient  Greek  writer  tells  us  that  in  earlier  times  the  years  were 
eight  times  as  long  as  they  were  in  his  (and  our)  day. 

There  were  also  some  authors  who  have  claimed  that  a  "  lu- 
nar year,"  from  full  moon  to  full  moon,  was  at  one  time  in  use. 
We  learn  (Gen.  v,  27)  that  "all  the  days  of  Methuselah  were  nine 
hundred  and  sixty-nine,  and  he  died."  If  "lunar  years"  were 
meant,  this  would  make  about  74  solar  years,  which  would  not  be 
unbelievable.  Possibly  the  suggestion  of  "lunar  years"  was  an 
effort  to  make  the  genealogy  of  the  patriarchs  of  old  more  plausi- 
ble; but  this  theory  of  the  years  creates  other  difficulties,  for 
"Enoch  lived  sixty  and  five  years,  and  begat  Methuselah;"  this, 
if  we  figure  lunar  years,  would  make  Enoch  about  five  (solar) 
years  old  when  he  begat  Methuselah.  On  the  other  hand,  if  solar 
years  were  meant,  the  patriarchs  were  quite  old  men  before  they 
commenced  to  "beget,"  which  is  exceedingly  unlikely  to  have  been 
the  case.  Probably  the  best  solution  is  to  consider  the  genealogy 
as  altogether  imaginary  and  give  it  no  further  consideration. 

The  most  noticeable  division  of  time  was  the  day;  among  the 
ancient  Jews  this  was  from  sunset  to  sunset;  our  astronomers 
figure  it  from  noon  to  noon,  and  in  ordinary  life  we  count  from 
midnight  to  midnight. 

The  next  most  apparent  division  of  time  is  based  on  the 
phases  of  the  moon;  from  new  moon  to  new  moon  was  a  month. 
These  months  are  now  called  "lunar  months;"  they  do  not  cor- 
respond to  our  ordinary  months,  which  were  subdivisions  of  the 
year  based  on  the  worship  of  the  "Twelve  Great  Gods,"  the  zo- 
diacal signs  (Figs.  32  and  33). 

In  ancient  India  the  new  and  full  moon  were  religious  fes- 
tivals; they  were  approximately  fourteen  days  apart;  dividing 
each  period  into  two,  corresponding  to  the  four  quarters  of  the 
moon,  gave  four  divisions,  or  "weeks." 

Among  the  ancient  Semitic  races,  also,  the  new  and  full  moons 
were  festivals,  and  even  to  this  day,  the  Jews  and  Christians  base 
their  Easter  festival  on  the  phases  of  the  moon. 

This  week  of  seven  days  was  common  to  practically  all  the 
Eastern  or  Asiatic  nations,  long  before  there  was  a  Jewish  na- 
tion, probably  ages  before  Moses  lived,  and  therefore  a  long,  long 
time  before  the  Genesis  account  of  Creation  was  formulated. 

The  old  Egyptians  had  a  week,  of  ten  days ;  and  it  is  interest- 
ing to  know  that  during  the  French  revolution,  when  the  Decimal 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

System  of  Weights  and  Measures  was  introduced,  an  effort  was 
made  to  introduce  a  decimal  week. 

Among  many  nations,  especially  those  of  nomadic  habits  in 
which  the  shepherds  guarded  the  flocks  at  night,  the  heavenly 
bodies  were  contemplated  and  studied,  and  astrology  had  its  or- 
igin. The  " Seven  Great  Gods"  were  the  planets,  as  then  known, 
Saturn,  Jupiter,  Mars,  Sun,  Venus,  Mercury  and  Moon.  Each 
one  of  these  deities  ruled  over  one  day  of  the  week,  and  the  rota- 
tion in  which  they  ruled  fixed  the  names  of  the  days  of  the  week. 

This  made  a  week  of  seven  davs  which  was  not  based  on 


Fig.  '.l"2. — Zodiacal     signs     in     bas-relief; 
original  in  the  Louvre,  Paris. 


Fig.  33.— "Chaos."  Represented  as 
the  wrecking  of  the  Zodiacal  constella- 
tions, XVIII  Century. 


any  motions  of  the  heavenly  bodies  and  this  week  was  common  to 
nearly  all  ancient  Asiatic  countries,  and  it  is  the  week  we  still 
have;  but  the  number  of  days  for  the  creation  has  nothing  to  do 
with  this  week. 

The  English  names  of  the  days  of  our  present  week  are 
from  the  Old  Saxon  names,  which  were  as  follows: 

Sun's  Day,  or  Sunday,  in  honor  of  the  sun;  Moon's  Day,  or 
Monday,  in  honor  of  the  moon;  Tiw's  Day,  or  Tuesday,  in  honor 
of  Tiw  or  Tives,  an  old  Teutonic  deity;  Wodan's  Day,  or  Wednes- 


100  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

day,  in  honor  of  the  old  Teuton  and  Norse  god  Wodan;  some  say 
this  is  derived  from  Venus'  Day,  but  this  explanation  is  not  gen- 
erally accepted;  Thor's  Day,  or  Thursday,  in  honor  of  the  Norse 
god  Thor,  the  god  of  thunder  (wherefore  this  day  is  called  Don- 
nerstag,  or  Thunder's  Day,  in  German) ;  Freya's  Day  (or  Friga's 
Day),  or  Friday,  in  honor  of  Freya  or  Friga,  the  Germanic  vir- 
gin goddess;  and  lastly,  Saturn's  Day,  or  Saturday,  in  honor  of 
the  god  Saturn. 

In  former  days,  Thursday  was  also  known  as  Jove's  Day; 
Wednesday  as  Mercury's  Day;  Tuesday  as  Mars'  Day,  because 
Tiw  or  Tives  was  the  Teuton  god  of  war  and  was  considered  iden- 
tical with  the  Roman  god  of  war,  Mars. 

Because  the  "Seven  Great  Gods"  were  worshipped,  the  num- 
ber seven  became  a  sacred  number  to  which  a  great  many  super- 
stitions became  attached.  Saturn  (Greek,  Cronus),  the  first  of 
the  "Seven  Great  Gods,"  exerted  many  occult  and  sinister  influ- 
ences, among  others,  on  sooth-saying  or  fortune-telling  and  witch- 
craft. His  bad  repute  was  probably  due  to  his  having  cut  off  the 
sexual  organs  of  his  father  Sky  or  Uranus.  His  magical  influ- 
ence or  power  as  the  god  of  the  seventh  day  is  still  believed  in  by 
many  among  us,  as  for  instance  in  the  belief  in  the  occult  powers 
of  the  seventh  son  of  a  seventh  son,  in  the  superstitious  veneration 
of  the  seventh  day,  in  "come  seven,  come  eleven,"  etc. 

Among  some  nations  in  Asia  the  first  day  of  the  week  was 
named  in  honor  of  the  god  Saturn,  which  would  make  the  last  day 
of  the  week  Friday ;  at  that  time,  however,  this  day  was  sacred  to 
the  goddess  Mylitta,  the  Assyrian  form  of  the  goddess  Venus; 
this  day  was  consecrated  to  marriages,  and  to  festivals  during 
which  practices  were  indulged  in  that  are  now  considered  indecent 
when  done  in  public,  but  which  at  that  time  were  done  publicly  in 
honor  of  Venus  (Mylitta)  in  her  temples. 

This  day  therefore  became  accursed  to  the  early  Christians, 
because  the  church  considered  the  sexual  rites  in  honor  of  the 
goddess  Venus  as  a  gross  affront  to  their  own  Virgin. 

As  we  shall  see  later  on,  the  fish  has  a  shape  which  reminds 
of  the  vulva  or  yoni,  and  as  this  was  a  symbol  for  various  god- 
desses (Ashtoreth,  Venus,  Isis,  etc.)  and  prominently  so  for  the 
Assyrian  goddess  Mylitta,  the  fish  became  consecrated  to  this 
goddess  and  was  eaten  as  a  feast  on  the  day  of  the  Virgin,  call 
it  Mylitta  Day,  or  Freya-Day,  or  Friday,  as  you  please. 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  101 

The  fish  is  still  eaten,  but  as  a  fast,  on  the  Virgin's  Day 
(Freya  Day  or  Friday)  by  an  overwhelming  majority  of  Chris- 
tians. 

However,  an  entirely  different  explanation  is  also  given  for 
the  sacredness  of  the  fish  as  a  Christian  symbol;  the  Greek 
word  i\0v<i  (Iclitliys,  Fish)  is  found  on  many  articles,  rings,  seals, 
amulets,  tombstones,  etc.,  of  the  early  Christian  period,  because 
the  letters  of  the  word  are  the  initials  of  the  Greek  words  Jesus 
Christ,  Son  of  God,  Savior. 

The  point  of  importance  here,  is,  that  the  week  of  seven  days 
was  used  ages  before  Moses  lived,  and  therefore  could  not  have 
been  derived  from  the  story  in  Genesis. 

Nor  was  the  seventh  day  a  sacred  or  holy  day  because  God 
rested  on  the  seventh  day ;  all  the  affairs  of  the  people  were  regu- 
lated by  the  priests,  according  to  the  days  of  the  week,  among  the 
ancients  who  worshipped  the  deities  who  presided  over  the  sev- 
eral days. 

In  ancient  Assyria  and  Babylonia  the  first  day  of  the  week 
was  consecrated  to  Saturn  (the  Assyrian  god  Baal  or  Bel)  and 
the  last  day  of  the  week  to  Mylitta,  the  Assyrian  goddess  of  love, 
wherefore  marriages  took  place  on  this  day;  and  as  weddings 
wrere  alwaj^s  and  everywhere  accompanied  by  feasting  and  rejoic- 
ing, it  became  the  festival  day,  a  day  of  rest  from  the  ordinary 
avocations  or  labors;  it  was  the  "seventh  day."  It  is  still  the 
sabbath  among  the  Mohammedans. 

But  in  quite  early  times  the  numbers  of  the  days  of  the  week 
became  shifted;  the  Sun's  day  was  placed  first  and  Saturn's  day 
was  the  last,  or  "seventh"  day,  the  holy  day. 

From  the  Assyrians  the  Semitic  people  (Jews)  adopted  this 
as  their  "seventh"  day,  or  day  of  feasting  and  rest  from  work; 
and  the  myth  of  its  origin  was  invented  by  them  (or  Moses)  to  in- 
crease its  sacredness. 

We  read  (Lev.  xxiii,  2  and  3)  *  *  *  "even  these  are  my 
feasts.  Six  days  shall  work  be  done ;  but  the  seventh  day  is  the 
sabbath  of  rest,  a  holy  convocation ;  ye  shall  do  no  work  therein ; 
it  is  the  sabbath  of  the  Lord  in  all  your  dwellings." 

Among  the  ancient  Jewrs  it  was  observed  in  the  sense  in  which 
it  was  instituted,  as  a  religious  festival,  a  day  of  enjoyment,  of 
feasting;  but  Nehemiah  (about  450  B.C.)  made  it  a  legal  day  of 
rest,  as  may  be  fully  appreciated  by  reading  the  thirteenth  chapter 


102  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

of  the  book  of  Nehemiah.  He  forbade  the  sale  of  wine,  of  grapes 
and  of  figs,  and,  of  fish  (Nehemiah,  xiii,  15,  16),  and  other  materi- 
als for  the  festival;  and  he  insisted  on  attendance  in  the  syna- 
gogues, etc. ;  in  other  words,  he  was  the  originator  of  the  puritan- 
ical ideas  that  have  marked  all  later  Christian  legislation  on  the 
sabbath,  for  previous  to  Nehemiah 's  time  the  civil  authorities  did 
not  attempt  to  exert  their  fanatical  zeal  to  make  all  others  comply 
with  their  narrow  views  of  what  the  sabbath  signified,  or  how  it 
should  be  observed.  Jesus  said  "The  sabbath  was  made  for  man, 
and  not  man  for  the  sabbath  (Mark  ii,  27)." 

Gemetria 

Arabic  numeration  as  we  have  it  now,  was  introduced  about 
715  A.D.  ;  it  was  therefore  unknown  to  the  ancients. 

In  early  Greek  times  the  letters  of  the  Ionic  alphabet  were 
used  for  numeration;  the  letters  were  consecutively,  1,  2,  3,  etc., 
to  24,  for  the  24  letters  of  their  alphabet. 

Another  mode  was  in  use  among  the  Greeks,  Hebrews  and 
Assyrians  (Syrians) ;  they  used  the  first  nine  letters  for  the 
numbers  1  to  9  inclusive ;  the  rest  of  the  letters  for  the  tens,  hun- 
dreds, etc.  In  addition  to  their  own  letters  the  Greeks  used  three 
Phoenician  letters  for  numbering,  which  they  did  not  use  for 
writing. 

In  the  old  Semitic  alphabet  of  22  letters,  the  higher  numbers 
were  expressed  by  juxtapositions;  in  the  Roman  numeration, 
which  we  still  use  for  certain  purposes,  only  a  few  letters  are  used 
as  numbers —  I,  V,  X,  L,  C,  D,  M, — the  numbers  being  expressed 
by  juxtapositions. 

Gemetria  was  a  science  of  numbers  that  involved  many  mys- 
tical attributes  of  numbers  which  appear  very  queer  to  us  now. 
The  Gnostics,  for  instance,  believed  that  from  God  emanated  365 
angels,  one  as  a  guardian  for  each  day  of  the  year;  these  were 
called  "Abraxas"  because  the  Greek  letters  of  this  word  sig- 
nified 365. 

In  the  Hebrew  Mishnah  and  Kabbalah  and  in  the  Christian 
Apocalypse  (or  Revelation)  we  find  many  examples  of  this  use 
of  numbers;  I  will  quote  one  which  refers  to  Antichrist:  Rev. 
xiii,  18:  "Here  is  wisdom.  Let  him  that  hath  understanding 
count  the  number  of  the  beast:  for  it  is  the  number  of  a  man; 
and  his  number  is  six  hundred  threescore  and  six  (666)." 


SEX    AXD    SEX    WORSHIP  103 

The  words  Kaesar  Neron  (in  Jewish  letters)  figure  up  666. 
Therefore  many  authorities  believed  the  Emperor  Nero  to  be 
Antichrist. 

Some  said  that  the  word  "lateinos,"  whose  Greek  letters 
added  up  to  the  figures  666,  was  to  be  construed  as  meaning  the 
Pagan  Roman  Empire  to  be  Antichrist.  Pope  Innocent  III  (in 
1215)  declared  the  Saracens  to  be  Antichrist,  and  Pope  Greg- 
ory IX  (in  1234)  called  the  emperor  Frederick  II,  Antichrist. 
The  church  called  all  heretics  Antichrist;  while  the  Waldenses, 
Wicliffe,  Huss,  Luther  and  others  retaliated  by  calling  the  Pope 
Antichrist. 

Mohammed  also  had  an  Antichrist  in  the  Koran ;  he  said  the 
Antichrist  was  to  be  branded  on  the  forehead  with  the  letters 
"C.  F.  R."  At  that  time  no  vowrels  were  in  use  in  Arabia,  as 
already  explained,  therefore  C.  F.  E.  spelled  "Cafir"  and  was  so 
pronounced;  this  word  meant  "infidel." 

Gradually  the  meaning  of  gemetria  was  lost;  Irenaeus,  for 
instance,  one  of  the  church-fathers  (130-202  A.D.),  did  not  under- 
stand it  and  made  several  conjectures  as  to  what  it  meant,  in  the 
vision  of  Daniel,  and  in  the  Apocalypse,  but  none  of  his  conjec- 
tures were  correct. 

There  were  lucky  and  unlucky  days  and  numbers;  the  7th, 
14th,  19th,  21st,  and  28th  days  of  the  month  were  unlucky  in  an- 
cient Babylon  and  Assyria.  The  natives  of  Madagascar  believe 
in  lucky  and  unlucky  days  of  birth.  If  a  child  is  born  on  an  un- 
lucky day,  it  is  killed  at  once,  rather  than  have  it  live  under  the 
dread  inspired  by  its  unlucky  birthday. 

Thirteen  is  an  unlucky  number  with  us,  because  the  13  (Jesus 
and  his  twelve  disciples)  sat  at  table  together  just  before  Jesus 
was  arrested,  tried  and  crucified.  Many  hotels  have  no  rooms  la- 
beled 13;  there  was  no  "station  13"  on  the  railroad  in  the  World's 
Fair  Grounds  in  St.  Louis  in  1904,  and  an  accidental  company  of 
thirteen  at  a  banquet  or  at  table  will  cause  consternation  and  un- 
easiness for  not  a  few,  and  that  even  among  people  whom  we  do 
not  ordinarily  consider  superstitious. 

The  crises  in  diseases  were  based  on  gemetria:  "The  fourth 
day  is  the  index  of  the  seventh,  the  eighth  of  the  week  following. 
But  the  eleventh  day  is  to  be  considered,  for  it  is  the  fourth  of 
another  seventh.  And  again  the  seventeenth  day  is  to  be  consid- 


104  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

ered,  being  the  fourth  from  the  fourteenth  and  the  seventh  from 
the  eleventh"  (ancient  medical  idea). 

Friday,  as  already  explained,  was  deemed  accursed  by  the 
early  Christians  on  account  of  its  association  with  Mylitta  or  Ve- 
nus; it  was  considered  particularly  unlucky;  it  was  (and  is)  made 
4 'hangman's  day;"  it  is  considered  to  be  unlucky  to  start  on  a 
journey  or  begin  any  undertaking  on  this  day,  and  when  the  thir- 
teenth and  Friday  happen  to  fall  on  the  same  day  it  is  supposed 
to  portend  particularly  bad  luck. 

Philo  Judaeus  was  a  Jewish  philosopher  who  lived  in  Alex- 
andria, Egypt,  from  20  B.C.  to  40  A.D.  Let  us  consider  a  few  para- 
graphs from  his  writings : 

"THE  CREATION  OF  THE  WORLD" 

"I.  Of  other  lawgivers,  some  have  set  forth  what  they  con- 
sider to  be  just  and  reasonable,  in  a  naked  and  unadorned  manner, 
while  others,  investing  their  ideas  with  an  abundance  of  ampli- 
fication, have  sought  to  bewilder  the  people  by  burying  the  truth 
under  a  heap  of  fabulous  inventions.  But  Moses  *  made 

the  beginnings  of  the  laws  entirely  beautiful  neither  in- 

venting fables  himself  nor  adopting  those  which  had  been  invented 
by  others  *  *  *  . 

"II.  For  some  men,  admiring  the  world  itself  rather  than 
the  Creator  of  the  world,  have  represented  it  as  existing  without 
any  maker  *  *  . 

"III.  And  he  (Moses)  says  that  the  world  was  made  in  six 
days,  not  because  the  Creator  stood  in  need  of  a  length  of  time 
but  because  the  things  created  required  arrangement; 
and  number  is  akin  to  arrangement;  and,  of  all  numbers,  six  is 
by  the  laws  of  nature,  the  most  productive ;  for  of  all  the  numbers, 
from  the  unit  upwards,  it  is  the  first  perfect  one,  being  made  equal 
to  its  parts,  and  being  made  complete  by  them ;  the  number  three 
being  half  of  it,  and  the  number  two  a  third  of  it,  and,  so  to  say, 
it  is  formed  so  as  to  be  both  male  and  female,  and  is  made  up  of 
the  power  of  both  natures ;  for  in  existing  things  the  odd  number 
is  the  male,  and  the  even  number  is  the  female;  accordingly,  of 
odd  numbers  the  first  is  the  number  three  and  of  even  numbers 
the  first  is  the  number  two,  and  the  two  numbers  multiplied  make 
six.  It  was  fitting,  therefore,  that  the  world,  being  the  most  per- 
fect of  created  things,  should  be  made  according  to  the  perfect 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  105 

number,  namely,  six :  and  as  it  was  to  have  in  it  the  causes  of  both, 
which  arise  from  combination,  that  it  should  be  formed  according 
to  a  mixed  number,  the  first  combination  of  odd  and  even  num- 
bers, since  it  was  to  embrace  the  character  both  of  the  male  who 
sows  the  seed,  and  of  the  female  who  receives  it.  And  he  allotted 
each  of  the  six  days  to  one  of  the  portions  of  the  whole,  taking 
out  the  first  day,  which  he  does  not  even  call  the  first  day,  that  it 
may  not  be  numbered  with  the  others,  but  entitling  it  one,  he 
names  it  rightly,  perceiving  in  it,  and  ascribing  to  it  the  nature 
and  appellation  of  the  unit. 

"VII.  Moses  says  also:  'In  the  beginning  God  created  the 
heaven  and  the  earth,'  taking  the  beginning  to  be,  not  as  some 
men  think,  that  which  is  according  to  time;  for  before  the  world 
time  had  no  existence,  but  was  created  either  simultaneously  with 
it,  or  after  it  ;  to  venture  to  assert  that  time  is  older 

than  the  world  is  absolutely  inconsistent  with  philosophy.    *    *    * 

"XL  And  after  this,  as  the  whole  body  of  water  in  existence 
was  spread  over  all  the  earth,  and  had  penetrated  through  all  its 
parts  as  if  it  were  a  sponge  which  had  imbibed  moisture,  so  that 
the  earth  was  only  swampy  land  and  deep  mud,  both  the  elements 
of  earth  and  water  being  mixed  up  and  combined  together,  like 
one  confused  mass  into  one  undistinguishable  and  shapeless  na 
ture,  God  ordained  that  all  the  water  which  was  salt,  and  destined 
to  be  a  cause  of  barrenness  to  seeds  and  trees  should  be  gathered 
together,  flowing  forth  out  of  all  the  holes  of  the  entire  earth ;  and 
he  commanded  dry  land  to  appear,  that  liquid  which  had  any 
SAveetness  in  it  being  left  in  it  to  secure  its  durability.  For  this 
sweet  liquid,  in  due  proportions,  is  as  a  sort  of  glue  for  the  dif- 
ferent substances,  preventing  the  earth  from  being  utterly  dried 
up,  and  so  becoming  unproductive  and  barren,  and  causing  it, 
like  a  mother,  to  furnish  not  only  one  kind  of  nourishment,  namely 
meat,  but  both  sorts  at  once,  so  as  to  supply  its  offspring  with 
both  meat  and  drink ;  wherefore  he  filled  it  with  veins,  resembling 
breasts,  which  being  provided  with  openings,  were  destined  to 
pour  forth  springs  and  rivers.  And  in  the  same  way  he  extended 
the  invisible  irrigations  of  dew  pervading  every  portion  of  arable 
and  deep-soiled  land,  to  contribute  to  the  most  liberal  and  plente- 
ous supply  of  fruits.  Having  arranged  these  things,  he  gave  them 
names,  calling  the  dry  'land'  and  the  water  which  was  separated 
from  it  'sea.'  " 


106 

Ezra,  who  reduced  the  traditions  of  the  Mosaic  account  to 
writing,  and  who  lived  in  the  lands  in  which  the  pseudo-science  of 
gemetria  was  cultivated,  no  doubt  introduced  these  mystical  spec- 
ulations to  "improve"  or  "perfect"  the  traditions  dating  from 
Moses,  who  probably  did  not  know  anything  about  gemetria. 

That  the  mystic  science  of  gemetria  was  known  to  the  Chal- 
deans, Assyrians  and  Babylonians  in  the  days  of  Ezra,  is  certain, 
for  in  the  book  of  Daniel  occur  plentiful  references  to  mystic  num- 
bers. Daniel  was  learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Chaldeans 
(Dan.  i,  4)  and  in  his  interpretations  of  the  visions  of  others,  and 
in  his  own  visions  occur  such  phrases  as  "seven  times" — "four 
beasts" — "four  wings" — "ancient  of  days" — "time,  times  and 
a  half,"  etc.  The  references  to  animals,  etc.,  are  very  similar  to 
the  "eagle,"  "the  swan,"  "the  raven,"  etc.,  of  the  Rosecrucians 
and  the  alchemists  of  later  days,  who  still  cultivated  the  science 
of  gemetria. 

Daniel  wrote  about  600  B.C.  ;  Ezra  wrote  about  450  B.C.  ;  Philo 
wrote  about  the  beginning  of  our  era;  and  St.  John  wrote  the 
Apocalypse  about  96  A.D.,  and  all  of  these  writings  make  use  of 
the  mystic  meanings  of  numbers  according  to  gemetria,  which  was 
part  of  the  learning  of  the  initiated. 

Anyhow,  we  see  that  the  story  of  Genesis  has  nothing  to  do 
with  our  week,  nor  the  week  with  Genesis,  but  that  the  story  of 
Genesis  is  based  on  the  supposed  "perfection"  of  the  number  six. 
It  is  therefore  wasted  time  to  bestow  much  study  or  attach  any 
importance  to  the  "days"  of  Creation  as  related  in  Genesis. 

And  it  shows  us  how  deeply  sex,  or  ideas  about  sex,  per- 
meated the  thoughts  of  the  ancients,  for  even  the  numbers  were 
male  and  female.  And  Philo 's  description  of  the  earth  corre- 
sponds with  the  general  views  held  in  regard  to  "Mother  Earth." 

These  considerations  explain  many  things  that  we  might  not 
so  readily  appreciate  if  wre  did  not  know  to  what  extent  sex  was 
the  underlying  principle  in  all  ancient  philosophies. 

THE  BIBLE  OF  THE  GREEKS 

The  word  Biblia  (or  Bible)  means  "The  Books."  It  is  there- 
fore proper  to  speak  of  all  sacred  "books"  as  the  Biblia  (bibles) 
of  the  respective  people  among  whom  they  were  held  sacred. 

The  sacred  books  of  the  Greeks  were  the  poems  of  Homer 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  107 

(about  1000  B.C.)  and  Hesiod  (about  800  B.C.).  Like  the  books  of 
the  Jewish  bible,  these  works  were  handed  down  through  centu- 
ries by  oral  transmission  from  generation  to  generation,  until  fi- 
nally the  art  of  writing  was  acquired  by  the  Greeks,  when  these 
poems  were  reduced  to  writing. 

How  anthropomorphic  the  Greek  deities  were  supposed  to  be 
can  perhaps  best  be  shown  by  quoting  a  few  passages  from  Hesiod. 
In  enumerating  the  gods,  Hesiod  begins  by  describing  the  genera- 
tion of  gods  to  which  Zeus  belonged — only  referring  briefly  to 
Cronos  as  the  father  of  Zeus. 

Cronos,  the  oldest  god,  is  sometimes  supposed  to  be  the  same 
as  Chronos  (Time) ;  they  are  not  the  same,  only  the  sounds  being 
similar  while  the  spelling  is  different. 

Thus  writes  Hesiod:  "Begin  we  to  sing  with  the  Heliconian 
Muses,  who  *  *  *  with  delicate  feet  dance  about  the  violet- 
hued  fount  and  altars  of  the  mighty  Son  of  Cronos  (Zeus) ;  and 
likewise  having  bathed  their  soft  skins  are  wont  to  in- 

stitute on  the  top  of  Helicon  choral  dances,  beautiful  and  lovely, 
and  move  nimbly  with  their  feet  .  By  night  they  were 

wont  to  wend  their  way,  uttering  sounds  exceeding  sweet,  while 
they  celebrate  aegis-bearing  Jove  and  majestic  Juno 
and  gleaming-eyed  Athena  ;  Phoebus  Apollo;  Artemis, 

arrow  queen;  and  earth-compassing,  earth-shaking  Poseidon; 
august  Themis ;  Aphrodite,  shooting  lovely  glances  ;*  and 
Hebe  and  fair  Dione;  Aurora  and  the  great  Sun,  and 

the  resplendent  Moon;  Latona,  and  lapetus  and  wily  Cronos. 
Earth,  mighty  Ocean,  and  dark  Night,  and  the  holy  race  of  other 
ever-living  immortals  *  *  ." 

"The  Muses     *  whom  Mnemosyne  bare,  after  union 

with  their  sire,  the  son  of  Cronos   *  ;  for  during  nine  nights 

did  the  Counsellor  Jove  associate  with  her,  apart  from  the  other 
immortals,  ascending  her  holy  bed  *  *  *  an(j  many  days  had 
been  completed,  then  she  bare  nine  accordant  daughters  whose 
care  is  song  *  *  *  ." 

"In  truth  then  foremost  sprang  Chaos,  and  next  broad- 
bosomed  Earth  *  *  *  but  from  Chaos  were  born  Erebus  and 
black  Night ;  and  from  Night  again  sprang  forth  Aether  and  Day, 
whom  Earth  bare  after  having  conceived  by  union  with  Erebus 
in  love." 

"'Making  goo-goo  eyes." 


108  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

1  'And  Earth  bare  first  indeed  like  to  herself  (in  size)  starry 
Heaven  that  he  might  shelter  her  around  on  all  sides,  so  that  she 
might  ever  be  a  secure  seat  for  the  blessed  gods;  *  *  *  but 
afterwards,  having  bedded  with  Heaven,  she  (Earth)  bare  deep- 
eddying  Ocean,  Caeus  and  Crius,  Hyperion  and  lapetus,  Thea  and 
Rhea,  Themis,  Mnemosyne,  and  Phoebe  with  golden  coronet,  and 
lovely  Thetis.  And  after  these  was  born,  youngest,  wily  Cronos, 
most  savage  of  their  children;  and  he  hated  his  vigor-giving 
sire  *  *  *  .  For  of  as  many  sons  as  were  born  of  Earth  and 
Heaven  they  *  *  *  were  hated  by  their  sire  from  the  very  first ; 
as  soon  as  any  of  these  were  born,  he  would  hide  them  all,  and 
not  send  them  up  to  the  light,  in  a  cave  of  the  earth,  and  Heaven 
exulted  over  the  work  of  mischief,  while  huge  Earth  inly  groaned. ' ' 


Fig.  34. — ' '  Birth  of  Venus, ' '  from  painting  by  Botticelli. 

So  Earth  conspired  with  her  son  Cronos  (Saturn)  to  avenge 
her,  and  furnished  him  with  a  sickle  with  which  to  castrate  Heaven. 

"Then  came  vast  Heaven,  bringing  Night  with  him,  and, 
eager  for  love,  brooded  around  Earth  and  lay  stretched,  I  wot, 
on  all  sides ;  but  his  son  from  out  his  ambush  grasped  at  him  with 
his  left  hand,  whilst  in  his  right  he  took  the  huge  sickle,  long  and 
jagged-toothed  and  hastily  mowed  off  the  genitals  of  his  sire,  and 
threw  them  back  to  be  carried  away  behind  him.  In  nowise  vainly 
slipped  they  from  his  hand ;  for  as  many  gory  drops  as  ran  thence, 
Earth  received  them  all;  and  when  the  years  rolled  round  she 
gave  birth  to  stern  Furies  and  mighty  Giants  *  *  *  ." 

"But  the  genitals,  as  after  first  severing  them  with  the  steel 
he  had  cast  them  into  the  heaving  sea  from  the  continent,  so  kept 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP 


109 


drifting  a  long  time  up  and  down  the  deep,  and  all  round  kept  ris- 
ing a  white  foam  from  the  immortal  flesh ;  and  in  it  a  maiden  was 
nourished;  first  she  drew  nigh  divine  Cythera,  and  thence  came 
next  to  wave-washed  Cyprus.  Then  forth  stepped  an  awful,  beau- 
teous goddess  (Fig.  34) ;  and  beneath  her  delicate  feet  the  verdure 
throve  around;  her,  gods  and  men  name  Aphrodite,  the  foam- 
sprung  goddess,  and  fair-wreathed  Cytherea — the  first  because 
she  was  nursed  in  foam,  but  Cytherea,  because  she  touched  at 
Cythera;  and  Cyprus-born  because  she  was  born  in  wave-dashed 
Cyprus." 


Fig.  35. — "Eros,"  by  Thorwaldsen. 

"And  her  Eros  (Love)  accompanied  (Fig.  35)  and  fair  Desire 
followed,  when  first  she  was  born  and  came  into  the  host  of  the 
gods." 

1 '  Night  bare  also  hateful  Destiny,  and  black  Fate,  and  Death. 
She  bare  Sleep,  likewise,  she  bare  the  tribe  of  Dreams ;  these  did 
the  goddess  gloomy  Night  bare  after  union  with  none." 

The  poems  of  Homer  were  more  human  and  humane;  they 
treated  the  story  of  the  gods  more  reverently;  there  were  less 
stories  of  rape,  incest,  murder,  and  of  unnatural  occurrences,  such 
as  changing  themselves  into  animals,  etc. ;  in  other  words,  the 


110  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

gods  and  goddesses  of  Homer  compared  with  the  same  deities  of 
Hesiod,  like  civilized  beings  compared  with  savages — yet  the  two 
versions  became  mixed  so  that  the  public  believed  both  kinds  of 
fiction  side  by  side. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  Hesiod  was  later  than  Homer,  and  al- 
though but  about  200  years  difference,  the  thoughts  and  ideas  had 
undergone  marked  degeneration  or  decadence  even  in  that  short 
time. 

BABYLONIAN  ACCOUNT  OF  CREATION 

(About  3800  B.C.) 

"Long  ago  when  the  heaven  above  had  not  been  named  and 
the  earth  beneath  had  no  name,  and  only  Apsu  (the  Ocean),  the 
primeval  who  begat  them,  and  Tiamat,  Confusion,  who  bore  them 
both,  existed — their  waters  mingled — and  when  no  fields  were 
formed,  and  no  reeds  to  be  seen,  when  not  one  of  the  gods  had 
been  called  into  being  and  named,  and  no  fates  had  been  decreed, 
then  were  created  all  the  gods.  Luchmu  and  Lachamu  were  the 
first  to  be  called  into  being.  Ages  passed,  then  Anshar  and  Kishar 
were  created,  and  long  days  before  Anu,  Bel,  and  Ea  were 
created."  *  *  * 

The  God  Marduk  fought  against  Tiamat  (Confusion)  and  de- 
stroyed Tiamat. 

"Then  the  lord  quieted  down,  seeing  her  ( Tiamat 's)  corpse. 
He  tore  from  her  like  of  a  fish  her  skin  in  two  halves. 
Half  of  her  he  stood  up,  and  made  it  the  heavenly  dome. 
Anu,  Bel  (and)  Ea  he  caused  to  inhabit  it  as  their  habitation. 
He  (Marduk)  established  the  mansions  of  the  great  gods. 
The  stars,  corresponding  to  them,  he  fixed,  and  the  annual  con- 
stellations.* 
He  determined  the  year,  (its)  limits  he  fixed,    *    *    * 

That  none  (of  the  days)  might  deviate  nor  be  found  lacking.    * 
*    #    * 

He  made  the  moon-god  (Nannaru)  brilliant,  intrusted  the  night 

to  him. 

He  defined  him  as  a  night-body,  to  mark  off  the  days  (saying), 
'Monthly  without  ceasing  define  (the  time)  with  the  disc; 

*This  refers  to  the  "Seven  Great  Gods"  the  planets,  and  the  "Twelve  Great  Gods"  the 
zodiacal  signs. 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  111 

In  the  beginning  of  the  month  light  up  in  the  evening, 
That  the  horns  shine  to  mark  the  heavens. 
On  the  seventh  day  make  half  the  royal  cap   (i.  e.,  show  one- 
half  of  the  disc).* 
On  the  fourteenth  mayest  thou  mark  the  half  of  the  month.' 

BRAHMANIC  IDEAS 

Some  of  the  earliest  records  of  religion  are  contained  in  the 
Vedas  of  the  Brahmans  of  India.  The  Vedas  are  hymns  addressed 
to  the  personified  powers  of  nature — the  Dawn,  the  Sky,  the 
Storm-god,  etc. 

1.  "In  the  Beginning  there  arose  the  Golden  child;  as  soon  as 

born,  he  alone  was  the  lord  of  all  that  is.  He  established 
the  earth  and  the  heavens: — Who  is  the  God  to  whom  we 
shall  offer  sacrifice? 

2.  "He  who  gives  breath,  he  who  gives  strength,  whose  command 

all  the  bright  gods  revere,  whose  shadow  is  immortality, 
whose  shadow  is  death : — Who  is  the  God  to  whom  we  shall 
offer  sacrifice? 

5.  "He  through  whom  the  awful  heaven  and  the  earth  were  made 
fast,  he  through  whom  the  ether  was  established,  and  the 
firmament;  he  who  measured  the  air  in  the  sky: — Who  is 
the  God  to  whom  we  shall  offer  sacrifice?  *  *  * 

7.  "When  the  great  waters  went  everywhere,  holding  the  germ, 

and  generating  light,  then  there  arose  from  them  the  breath 
of  the  gods : — Who  is  the  God  to  whom  we  shall  offer  sac- 
rifice? 

8.  "He  who  by  his  might  looked  even  over  the  waters  which  held 

power  (the  germ)  and  generated  the  sacrifice  (light),  he 
who  alone  is  God  above  all  gods : — Who  is  the  God  to  whom 
we  shall  offer  sacrifice? 

9.  "May  he  not  hurt  us,  he  who  is  the  begetter  of  the  earth,  or  he, 

the  righteous,  who  begat  the  heaven ;  he  who  also  begat  the 
bright  and  mighty  waters: — Who  is  the  God  to  whom  we 
shall  offer  sacrifice?" 


*This   was   the   creation   of   the   week. 


112  SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

To  the  God  Rudra 

(Storm-God,  Lightning -God) 

1.  "Offer  ye  these  songs  to  Rudra  whose  bow  is  strong,  whose  ar- 

rows are  swift,  the  self-dependent  god,  the  unconquered 
conqueror,  the  intelligent,  whose  weapons  are  sharp — may 
he  hear  us ! 

2.  "For  being  the  lord,  he  looks  after  what  is  born  on  earth;  be- 

ing the  universal  ruler,  he  looks  after  what  is  born  in 
heaven.  Protecting  us,  come  to  our  protecting  doors,  be 
without  illness  among  our  people,  0,  Rudra!" 

From  the  "First  Prapathaka" 

1.  "The  altar  is  man,  0  Gautama;  its  fuel  speech  itself,  the  smoke 

its  breath,  the  light  the  tongue,  the  coals  the  eye,  the  sparks, 
the  ear. 

2.  "On  that  altar  the  Devas  offer  food.    From  that  oblation  seed 

arises." 

1.  "The  altar  is  woman,  0  Gautama. 

2.  "On  that  altar  the  Devas  offer  seed.    From  that  oblation  rises 

the  germ." 

1.  "For  this  reason  is  water  in  the  fifth  oblation  called  man. 

This  germ,  covered  in  the  womb,  having  dwelt  there  ten 
months,*  or  more  or  less,  is  born. 

2.  "When  born,  he  lives  whatever  the  length  of  his  life  may  be. 

When  he  has  departed,  his  friends  carry  him,  as  appointed, 
to  the  fire**  from  whence  he  came,  from  whence  he  sprang." 

BUDDHISM 

Foundation  of  the  Kingdom  of  Righteousness 

5.  '  Now  this,  0  Bikkhus,  is  the  noble  truth  concerning 

suffering. 

"Birth  is  attended  with  pain,  decay  is  painful,  disease  is  pain- 
ful, death  is  painful.  Union  with  the  unpleasant  is  painful, 
painful  is  separation  from  the  pleasant;  and  any  craving 
that  is  unsatisfied,  that  too  is  painful.  *  *  *" 

*Ten  lunar  months. 
"Of  the  funeral  pile. 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  113 

6.  "Now  this,  0  Bikkhus,  is  the  noble  truth  concerning  the  origin 

of  suffering. 

"Verily,  it  is  that  craving,  causing  the  renewal  of  existence, 
accompanied  by  sensual  delight,  seeking  satisfaction  now 
here,  now  there — that  is  to  say,  the  craving  for  the  grat- 
ification of  the  passions.  *  *  * 

"This  then,  0  Bikkhus,  is  the  noble  truth  concerning  the  origin 
of  suffering.  • 

7.  "Now  this,  0  Bikkhus,  is  the  noble  truth  concerning  the  de- 

struction of  suffering. 

"Verily,  it  is  the  destruction,  in  which  no  passion  remains,  of 
this  very  craving;  the  laying  aside  of,  the  getting  rid  of, 
the  being  free  from,  the  harboring  no  longer  of  this  crav- 
ing. *  *  *" 

These  extracts  from  some  of  the  various  bibles  or  sacred 
books  show  the  importance  attached  to  sex,  to  begetting,  to  seed 
and  to  germ,  to  being  born,  etc.,  by  the  ancient  writers.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  enter  more  fully  on  this  subject  at  this  time.  The 
underlying  idea  of  nearly  all  religions  is  a  gladness  that  we  ex- 
ist, "we're  glad  we're  here,"  a  thankfulness  to  the  Creator,  and 
a  desire  to  show  our  gratitude  by  worship  and  sacrifices. 

SOME  OTHER  COSMOGONIES 

The  bibles  to  Avhich  reference  has  just  been  made,  are  those 
of  the  Aryan  people,  the  stock  from  which  came  modern  civiliza- 
tion, the  Caucasian  stock. 

To  define  the  term  "Caucasian"  so  as  to  sharply  separate 
this  race  from  all  other  races  is  impossible;  intermixture  with 
other  races  in  various  degrees,  has  left  an  impress  on  the  mixed 
offspring  which  obliterated  sharp  distinctions;  residence  for  un- 
told ages  in  tropical  climates  has  had  its  influence  in  modifying 
the  complexions;  so  there  is  no  possibility  to  define  accurately  a 
race  that  has  mixed  itself  for  ages  with  all  the  other  races  on 
earth,  until  we  realize  that  it  is  subject  to  great  variations  due  to 
these  conditions.  But  he  is  of  the  Indo-European  family  of  the 
human  race. 

A  Caucasian  is  not  necessarily  a  white  man;  he  may  be  very 
dark,  as  some  of  the  Hindus,  from  exposure  for  many  generations 
to  the  tropical  sun  and  climate.  He  is  "Caucasian"  from  consid- 


114  SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

erations  of  body  and  skull  formation,  large  facial  angle,  orthog- 
nathous  jaw,  large  cranial  capacity  and  brain  capability,  etc.,  and 
not  merely  on  account  of  his  color.  This  Aryan  stock  had  the 
largest  brain,  and  when  the  Aryans  left  their  original  habitat  in 
Asia  and  scattered  to  all  parts  of  the  world,  from  Ireland  and 
Scandinavia  to  India  and  Japan  (in  which  latter  country  we  find 
the  white  hairy  Ainus),  they  carried  with  them  the  traditions  of  a 
*' creator"  or  "father,"  and  of  a  religion  which  led  to  the  highest 
ethical  development  so  far  achieved  by  mankind. 

But  other  varieties  or  races  (called  species  by  some)  of  the 
"genus  homo"  whom  we  now  consider  to  be  barbarians  or  sav- 
ages, constructed  other  myths  in  regard  to  the  creation  of  the 
world  and  of  man,  many  of  which  seem  grotesquely  absurd  to  us. 

Religion  may  be  considered  to  be  an  effort  of  the  human  mind 
to  explain  the  relations  of  mankind  to  God — to  that  power  which 
is  conceived  to  exist  by  the  majority  of  mankind.  To  arrive  at 
truth  in  religion  is  the  highest  aim  of  man's  thought,  but  some  re- 
ligions had  only  a  vague  dawning  of  truth  while  others  are  eth- 
ically much  higher.  The  underlying  truth  of  religion  is  the  intent 
to  formulate  the  noblest  aspirations  and  conceptions  that  are  pos- 
sible to  the  finite  mind  of  man.  The  origin  of  the  ideas  about  a 
supernatural  power,  or  powers,  may  be  ascribed  to  various  causes. 

One  is  gratitude;  thankfulness  for  life,  for  existence.  This 
led  to  the  Aryan  concepts  in  regard  to  a  creator.  The  burden  of 
our  religions  is  thankfulness  to  the  Creator — "Worship  thy  Cre- 
ator"— and  in  probably  all  Aryan  nations,  this  creator  was  known 
as  the  "father." 

In  many  nations,  if  not  in  most  nations  of  antiquity,  this  cre- 
ator was  supposed  to  be  the  earthly  or  human  father,  the  paternal 
cause  of  our  being,  the  paternal  parent;  and  such  a  view  of  the 
creator  gave  rise  to  ancestor-worship,  which  was  probably  the 
oldest  and  most  universal  form  of  religion,  and  which  to  this  day 
prevails  in  many  lands. 

In  more  cultivated  or  advanced  races  and  nations  this  idea 
was  transferred  to  an  imaginary  "heavenly  father." 

Jupiter  was  the  same  deity  as  the  Vedic  or  Indian  god  Dyaus 
pitar;  he  was  the  Zens  of  the  Greeks,  and  the  Etruscan  god  Tina; 
in  all  these  religions  he  retained  his  original  significance;  he  was 
the  Graeco-Latinic  god  who  ruled  over  the  cyclic  changes  of  the 
heaven,  over  seasons,  and  years.  As  Jupiter,  he  was  Jupiter 


SEX   AXD   SEX    WORSHIP  llf) 

Lucretius,  the  god  of  the  bright  sky,  and  Jupiter  Pluvius,  the  god 
of  the  rainy  sky;  he  was  the  god  of  light  and  darkness,  of  thun- 
der and  rain.  To  him  every  place  that  was  struck  by  lightning 
became  sacred,  and  it  was  enclosed  by  a  fence  to  prevent  its  dese- 
cration by  profane  feet. 

In  Rome,  at  an  early  date,  a  moral  side  of  his  character  de- 
veloped, and  Jupiter  was  looked  upon  as  the  fatherly  ruler  of 
mankind,  who  protected  the  higher  elements  of  human  society  and 
guarded  the  sanctity  of  oaths;  this  latter  function  of  Jupiter  is 
still  recognized  by  us,  for  it  is  no  uncommon  occurrence  for  us  to 
exclaim  "by  Jove,"  as  did  the  ancient  Romans  when  taking  an 
oath. 

It  is  surprising  to  find  similar  views  held  by  savages  in  a 
strange  and  far  distant  continent.  The  Pawnees  and  Blackfeet 
Indians  worshipped  a  deity,  At  ins  Tirawa  (Father  Spirit),  an 
immaterial  spirit  who  was  beneficent,  benevolent,  and  all-power- 
ful. Next  came  Earth,  who  had  produced  them,  and  to  whom 
they  returned  at  death.  They  worshipped  "Mother  Corn"  who 
nourished  and  sustained  them.  The  sun,  moon  and  stars  were  per- 
sons, to  whom  they  prayed.  These  ideas  appear  to  have  been 
taken  from  the  same  general  fund  of  folklore,  that  seems  to  have 
encompassed  the  whole  world. 

Ancestor  worship  is  a  widely  disseminated  form  of  religion; 
in  some  nations,  as  among  the  Chinese,  it  is  a  literal  worship  of 
the  dead  parents,  grandparents,  etc.;  but  this  worship  is  often 
limited  to  the  worship  of  the  father,  the  mother  being  ignored  as 
a  factor  in  creation.  Among  the  Buddhists  the  ancient  teachers 
and  heroes  and  the  ancestors  of  their  rulers  are  venerated;  but 
among  some  sects  of  Buddhists,  some  living  persons  are  consid- 
ered as  divine,  as  the  Lamas  in  Thibet  and  the  Mikado  in  Japan. 
The  Mikados  are  considered  to  be  direct  descendants  of  the  sun- 
goddess,  whom  they  represent  on  earth,  and  hence  they  are  divine. 

In  other  nations,  as  in  ancient  Rome,  this  worship  was  at  first 
a  worship  of  the  father,  who  had  the  power  of  life  and  death  over 
his  wives,  children  and  slaves.  Later  on  it  assumed  a  less  literal 
form,  as  in  the  worship  of  the  Manes  or  Shades  or  Ghosts  of  the 
dead. 

Among  the  Romans,  the  ghosts  or  the  spirits  of  the  departed 
ancestors  became  the  object  of  a  sort  of  household  cult ;  they  were 


11G  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

called  the  Manes,  and  daily  offerings  or  libations  were  made  to 
them. 

On  tombstones  there  were  frequent  recognitions  of  them,  and 
"Dis  Manibus"  ("to  the  ancestral  gods")  was  a  frequent  inscrip- 
tion. 

In  some  nations  these  ideas  led  to  a  symbolic  worship  of  the 
generative  organs  of  the  parents,  the  penis  and  testicles,  called 
the  "phallus"  in  Greek  and  Latin,  and  the  vulva,  called  "yoni" 
in  Hindustani.  These  two  words,  "phallus"  and  "yoni"  are  gen- 
erally used  now  in  referring  to  the  worship  of  the  masculine  and 
feminine  powers  respectively;  these  forms  of  worship  are  re- 
ferred to  as  the  "phallic  worship" — not  perhaps  the  best  term 
that  might  have  been  chosen,  because,  strictly  speaking,  it  does 
not  include  the  worship  of  the  feminine,  and  also  because  among 
the  thinking  pagans  these  organs  were  not  actually  worshipped  as 
such,  but  were  adored  or  reverenced  only  as  symbols  for  the  pow- 
ers in  nature  which  they  represented.  By  the  word  symbol  we  un- 
derstand any  object  which  is  intended  to  call  to  mind,  or  to  stand 
for  some  moral  or  intellectual  idea;  it  is  also  called  emblem,  a 
type  or  representation  which  figuratively  stands  for  some  abstract 
ideal.  "Phallic  worship"  is  therefore  also  known  as  "nature- 
worship"  but  this  term  implies  more  than  the  former  term. 

Sex  is  the  greatest  fact  in  human  experience,  the  source  of 
life  and  of  nearly  all  its  deepest  emotions ;  the  well-spring  of  our 
intensest  pleasures  as  well  as  of  our  deepest  griefs  (Fig.  36). 
Solomon  said  in  Proverbs  (v,  18) :  "Eejoice  with  the  wife  of  thy 
youth  be  thou  ravished  always  with  her  love."  In  the 

Bible  the  first  command  given  by  God  to  man  was:  "Be  fruitful 
and  multiply"  (Gen.  i,  28). 

All  beauties  of  body  and  all  graces  of  mind  serve  but  to 
attract  two  individuals  of  different  sexes,  so  that  a  new  being 
may  be  created. 

Another  powerful  factor  in  producing  a  religious  feeling  was 
fear.  When  the  worship  of  ancestors  was  transferred  from  the 
living  parents  to  the  ancestral  dead,  gratitude  for  existence  be- 
came less  prominent  and  there  entered  into  religion  a  fearsome 
element,  the  universal  and  superstitious  fear  of  gliosts;  this  may 
have  led  to  the  expression,  "the  fear  of  God,"  or  "the  fear  of 
the  Lord."  Whatever  phenomena  of  nature  primitive  man  did 
not  understand  were  assigned  to  some  supernatural  power. 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  117 

In  all  religions  there  is  a  worship  of  a  power  greater  than 
man  and  outside  of  himself;  in  whatever  form  this  power  was 
imagined  it  almost  always  took  the  anthropomorphic  form  of  a 
sexual  power  that  created  nature — The  Demiurge — The  Creator. 

There  is  no  valid  reason  why  we  should  assign  the  first  dawn- 
ings  of  the  idea  of  a  deity  or  supernatural  power  to  any  very  early 
stage  of  the  existence  of  mankind.  No  doubt  fear  of  the  unknown 
was  an  early  accompaniment  of  the  fear  of  the  known.  The  early 
troglodites,  in  constant  dread  of  becoming  the  prey  of  the  saber- 
toothed  tiger  or  the  cave-bear  were  in  equal  dread  of  the  unseen 


Fig.  36. — "Eternal  Spring,"  by  Rodin. 

force  that  sent  the  storm  rushing  through  the  forest  or  that  hurled 
the  lightning  that  shattered  the  trees;  but  this  may  have  been  an 
indefinite — an  indefinable — dread,  for  which  primitive  man,  per- 
haps not  yet  even  endowed  with  the  gift  of  speech  or  language, 
could  form  no  conscious  explanation  or  conception. 

What  is  called  "history"  is  an  infinitely  small  span  of  time 
when  compared  with  the  hundreds  of  thousands,  perhaps  millions 
of  years,  that  elapsed  between  the  first  appearance  of  man  with 
the  primitive  body  and  the  primitive  mind  and  speech  and  reli- 
gion of  the  Pithecanthropus  or  Neanderthal  man,  and  the  histor- 
ical period ;  between  these  two  periods  stretches  an  inconceivably 


1  1 8  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

long  period  of  time,  regarding  which  all  is  darkness  and  mystery. 

From  the  first  utterances  of  human  articulate  sounds  until 
man  was  able  to  formulate  thought  into  speech  of  words  and  sen- 
tences, was  perhaps  a  longer  time  than  from  this  stage  of  his  exist- 
ence to  the  time  when  he  was  able  to  record  his  thoughts  in  sculp- 
ture, and  thus  begin  the  historical  period. 

But  the  first  thoughts  of  man's  theories  of  creation  took  place 
sometime  during  this  unknown  and  unrecorded  period  of  his 
existence. 

Of  the  period  between  the  time  when  the  first  primitive  human 
courtship  occurred,  when  the  male,  seeing  a  mossy  spot  under  the 
trees  that  would  have  tempted  the  fauns  and  nymphs  of  ancient 
Greece,  nudged  his  female  companion  with  a  primitive  "hm?" 
and  she  responded  with  an  acquiescing  "uh-huh!"  until  the  time 
when  man  stopped  to  contemplate  the  heavens  and  to  speculate  on 
cosmogonies,  we  know  nothing.  But  we  know  of  later  people,  in 
historical  times,  even  in  our  own  times,  who  have  not  yet  turned 
their  thoughts  to  any  religious  speculations. 

Even  among  ourselves,  in  civilized  nations,  the  masses  are  not 
interested  in  thoughts  about  cosmogony.  It  is  probable  that  there 
are  few  who  have  not  heard  about  God  and  who  would  not  be  able 
to  say  when  asked  Avho  made  the  world  that  God  made  it;  but 
it  conveys  no  real  thought  to  their  minds. 

A  Salvation  Army  lass  once  told  the  writer  that  one  of  their 
number  had  asked  a  man  whether  he  knew  that  Jesus  had  died 
for  him,  and  he  answered :  ' '  No,  I  did  not  even  know  that  he  was 
sick!"  Millions  of  human  beings  in  our  most  civilized  communi- 
ties are  equally  ignorant  and  indifferent,  and  from  their  own  inner 
consciousness  are  never  tempted  to  think  about  such  matters  at  all. 

The  Esquimaux  have  no  native  theory  of  God  or  creation; 
except  now,  such  as  has  been  taught  them  by  missionaries. 

The  Abipones  never  bothered  themselves  as  to  the  nature  or 
origin  of  the  heavenly  bodies ;  they  simply  accepted  them  as  mat- 
ters of  fact,  but  these  natural  phenomena  inspired  no  curiosity. 

There  are  a  number  of  so-called  cosmogonies  that  appear  to 
us  to  be  absurd.  For  instance:  The  Scandinavians  worshipped 
a  god  whom  they  called  Ymir;  the  first  man  and  woman  sprang 
from  his  armpit.  In  similar  manner,  Minerva  sprang  from  the 
head  of  Zeus,  and  Pan  from  his  thigh. 

According  to  the  Bible  (Gen.  ii,  7)  and  the  belief  of  the  na- 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  119 

lives  of  Australia,  New  Zealand,  Melanesia,  Greece,  India  and 
some  other  lands,  man  was  fashioned  out  of  clay  or  the  dust  of 
the  earth ;  as  the  funeral  ritual  of  many  of  our  churches  expresses 
it:  "Dust  thou  art,  and  unto  dust  slialt  thou  return;"  or  in  the 
words  of  the  Bible  (Gen.  iii,  19) :  "In  the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt 
thou  eat  bread,  till  thou  return  unto  the  ground;  for  out  of  it 
wast  thou  taken;  for  dust  thou  art,  and  unto  dust  shalt  thou 
return. ' ' 

A  colored  teacher  in  a  Sunday  school  told  his  class  how  God 
had  taken  a  moist  lump  of  clay  and  had  made  Adam  from  it; 
"and  God  set  him  alongside  of  a  fence  and  when  he  was  dry 
enough  he  blew  his  breath  into  his  nostrils,  and  Adam  became  a 
living  soul"  (see  Gen.  ii,  7).  "You  say  God  set  Adam  long-side 
of  a  fence  to  dry,"  said  an  inquisitive  pupil.  "Dass  what  I  said," 
answered  the  teacher.  "Well,  whar  did  that  fence  come  from?" 
"Ah,  go  way,  nigger;  such  questions  as  dat'll  upset  any  system 
of  theology!" 

In  Thibet  the  chief  god  was  Kun-tu-Czang-po,  and  his  wife 
Yom-ki-long-mo  was  the  eternal  female  principle;  from  these  two 
came  all  the  other  gods,  all  humankind,  and  the  whole  world. 

Some  North  American  tribes  of  Indians  say  that  the  muskrat 
created  the  earth  by  fishing  it  up  from  the  depths  of  the  ocean. 

The  Quiches,  of  ancient  Mexico  and  Central  America,  be- 
lieved that  Hurakan  ("hurricane")  the  thunder-god,  the  "heart 
of  heaven,"  created  humankind. 

The  ancient  Persians  said  that  the  first  tree  and  the  first  bull 
were  the  ancestors  of  the  human  race;  they  believed  that  there 
were  two  "antagonistic"  principles,  one  male  and  one  female, 
primordial  fire  or  heat  (the  passionate  nature  of  the  male)  and 
primordial  water,  or  cold  (the  apathetic  nature  of  the  female). 

According  to  Persian  traditions,  Meschia  and  Meschiane,  pro- 
genitors of  mankind,  were  created  for  happiness  in  this  world 
and  the  next,  provided  they  were  good  and  did  not  worship  Dews, 
the  Spirit  of  Evil.  But  they  were  seduced  by  an  evil  spirit  and 
dressed  themselves  in  black  for  thirty  days,  in  worship  of  the 
Spirit  of  Darkness.  Dews  then  gave  them  various  fruits  to  eat 
and  they  forfeited  many  pleasures ;  they  covered  themselves  with 
the  skins  of  dogs  and  ate  dogs. 

Ahriman  is  represented  as  a  poisonous   serpent  and  Dews 


120  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

often  assumes  the  same  shape  (the  same  story  that  we  find  in 
Genesis). 

The  Calmucks  say  that  men  in  the  first  age  of  the  world  lived 
80,000  years;  the}7  were  holy  and  happy.  But  a  plant  sweet  as 
honey  sprang  out  of  the  earth,  of  which  a  greedy  man  tasted  and 
made  others  acquainted  with  it.  A  sense  of  shame  was  awakened 
and  they  began  to  make  themselves  coverings  and  clothes  from 
leaves.  Virtue  fled  and  vice,  murder  and  adultery  spread  in  the 
land.  Thibetan  mythology  tells  a  similar  story. 

We  meet  here  the  same  elements  of  ancient  folklore  that  are 
found  in  the  Bible ;  the  great  age  of  the  first  of  mankind,  the  same 
eating  of  some  fruit  or  vegetable  product  which  caused  them  to 
become  ashamed,  the  same  making  themselves  clothes  from  leaves, 
the  same  fall  from  the  state  of  innocence. 

Ovid  (B.C.  43-A.D.  17)  said  that  man  was  made  in  the  image  of 
the  Gods  and  that  he  was  intended  to  rule  over  earth  and  all  the 
creatures  of  earth.  (See  charge  of  plagiarism,  p.  12.)  The 
same  folklore  material  that  appears  in  the  Bible  is  found  in  Ovid. 

The  Hindus  taught  that  Prajapati  ("the  universe  which  was 
soul  and  only  one")  made  animals  from  his  breath  and  men  from 
his  soul ;  the  same  element  of  folklore  that  was  also  utilized  in  the 
Bible. 

The  Brahmans  taught  that  Brahma  created  man  who  issued 
from  the  ground  at  the  divine  word  (Gen.  i,  11:  "let  the  earth 
bring  forth")  his  head  appearing  first,  then  his  shoulders,  body 
and  legs.  Life  was  then  infused  into  him,  and  God  made  for  him 
a  companion,  a  woman,  and  the  two  lived  together  as  man  and 
wife,  tilling  the  ground  (like  Adam  and  Eve),  and  they  had  four 
sons.  Brahma  made  wives  for  them  also,  and  they  and  their  prog- 
eny scattered  to  the  four  quarters  of  the  earth. 

In  one  regard  this  account  is  more  considerate  than  the  ac- 
count in  Genesis ;  a  good  many  people  are  sensitive  about  the  lat- 
ter story,  as  they  can  not  understand  where  Cain,  Abel  and  Seth 
got  wives  without  committing  incestuous  union  with  their  own 
sisters.  The  Bible  says  that  Adam  and  Eve  had  sons  and  daugh- 
ters ;  one  of  the  apocryphal  books,  the  Book  of  Jubilees,  mentions 
two  of  the  latter,  Avan  and  Azura.  The  Brahmans  tell  the  story 
so  as  not  to  worry  these  hypersensitive  ones,  who  take  these  myths 
for  actual  facts. 

Among  the  Bushmen  of  Africa  the  mantis  (Mantis  religiosa, 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  121 

the  insect  commonly  known  to  us  as  "devil's  horse")  is  supposed 
to  have  been  the  creator  of  the  world  and  its  inhabitants;  some 
tribes  of  Bushmen  say  the  creator  was  a  grasshopper;  but  they 
also  say  that  Cagn  (the  Mantis)  "gave  orders  and  caused  all 
things  to  appear." 

The  ancient  Greeks  also  ascribed  supernatural  powers  to  this 
insect;  the  Turks  and  Arabs  believe  that  it  prays  with  its  head 
towards  Mecca;  in  Nubia  it  is  viewed  with  much  veneration,  while 
the  Hottentots  are  said  to  worship  it,  and  when  one  alights  on 
them,  they  consider  it  a  peculiarly  good  omen. 

Even  among  more  civilized  people  it  is  considered  with  awe; 
it  is  related  that  once  one  of  these  insects  alighted  on  the  hand 
of  Saint  Francis  Xavier  (1506-1552  A.D.),  who,  impressed  by  its 
pious  attitude  of  prayer,  commanded  it  to  sing  the  praise  of  God, 
which  it  instantly  did  by  composing  and  intoning  loudly  a  hymn 
of  praise. 

But  are  such  myths  bona  fide  attempts  at  forming  a  theory 
of  cosmogony?  Are  we  justified  in  including  them  in  the  list  of 
mythologies  or  religions? 

When  a  mother  amongst  us  is  bothered  by  the  older  children 
to  tell  them  where  the  new  little  brother  or  sister  came  from,  does 
she  tell  them  what  she  really  knows?  Or  does  she  tell  them  that 
the  doctor  brought  it ;  or  that  a  stork  brought  it ;  or  (in  some  parts 
of  Europe)  that  it  was  found  in  a  hollow  tree,  or  that  it  grew  on 
a  tree? 

There  were  many  primitive  people  who  said  that  men  and 
women  came  out  of  caves;  and  caves  were  sacred  and  symbolical 
of  Cybele,  a  Phrygian  goddess,  at  one  time  worshipped  through- 
out Asia  Minor.  She  was  considered  as  identical  with  the  Gre- 
cian goddess  Rhea. 

Did  these  people  believe  as  a  religion  that  men  and  women 
came  out  of  caves?  Probably  not;  at  least  not  the  more  intel- 
ligent ones,  who  saw  in  such  a  story  a  euphemistic  way  of  saying 
that  children  come  out  of  the  vulva  and  womb,  for  which  "cave" 
is  a  symbol  in  some  religions;  the  cave  is  "the  womb  of  nature." 

Would  a  "man  from  Mars"  writing  about  his  visit  to  our 
earth  tell  his  readers  that  the  American  Christians  are  a  sect  who 
believe  that  storks  create  babies,  because  he  had  heard  a  mother 
explain  to  her  inquisitive  children  that  storks  brought  the  babies? 
Why  should  we  consider  such  stories  of  mythology  or  cosmogony 


122  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

to  be  serious  religion  for  grown-ups  on  the  part  of  some  other 
people? 

We  know  that  savages  at  a  certain  age  initiate  their  boys  and 
girls  into  societies  or  lodges  where  they  are  taught  certain  truths 
that  are  religiously  kept  from  the  uninitiated  or  children.  When 
strangers  interrogate  them,  they  are  apt  to  give  them  "  fairy 
tales"  instead  of  the  truth,  and  these  fairy  tales  seem  to  be  ac- 
cepted by  some  travelers  as  the  real  beliefs  of  the  people  whom 
they  interrogated.  Ma}7  not  this  be  the  case  with  some  of  these 
tales  of  cosmogony? 

In  nearly  all  primitive  cosmogonies,  "a  vast  abyss  of  water" 
is  assumed  to  be  feminine,  and  to  be  "made  pregnant"  by  a  male 
god  or  creator  or  demiurge. 

The  word  "demiurgus"  (Latin)  means  a  workman,  an  artif- 
icer, a  maker ;  one  who  makes  or  models  anything.  Tertullianus, 
a  Christian  writer  of  about  125  A.D.,  wrote:  "Figulat  hominem 
demiurgus  et  de  afflatu  suo  animat;"  (the  demiurge  models  man 
and  animates  him  with  some  of  his  breath).  The  word  figulat  is 
from  the  same  root  as  the  word  figulus,  a  moulder,  a  potter,  a 
brickmaker,  a  worker  in  clay. 

This  "demiurge,"  as  he  was  called  by  the  Platonic  philos- 
ophers, was  supposed  to  be  a  mysterious  power  through  whom 
God  created,  an  artificer  who  obeyed  the  commands  of  God,  as 
for  instance,  when  God  said  "let  there  be  light,"  the  demiurge 
made  or  turned  on  the  light. 

In  some  of  the  earlier  cosmogonies  the  first  thing  created  is 
light;  possibly  from  an  early  realization  that  life  depends  on 
light  and  that  creation  Avas  impossible  without  light.  The  Egyp- 
tians said  that  their  god  Thoth  was  the  demiurge,  the  Creator, 
who  was  said  "to  have  given  the  world  light  when  all  was  dark- 
ness and  there  was  no  sun."  Moses  also  had  God  create  light  first 
and  the  sun  afterwards. 

Now  human  beings  formed  by  a  demiurge  of  course  were  not 
born  in  the  ordinary  human  Avay ;  they  were  fashioned  in  a  super- 
natural way;  they  were  therefore  called  "protoplasts"  by  the 
ancients. 

Also,  some  writers,  like  Swedenborg,  taught  that  in  heaven 
all  Anil  be  naked  as  clothing  was  introduced  through  sin;  based 
on  this  idea,  writers  have  said  that  when  we  go  to  heaven  we  can 
readily  recognize  Adam  and  Eve  because  they  have  no  navels, 


SEX    AXD    SEX    WORSHIP  1  l'H 

never  having  been  attached  through  a  navel  cord  and  placenta  to 
a  mother. 

In  most  religions  but  little  stress  is  placed  on  the  navel.  In 
India  Vishnu's  navel,  symbolized  thus:  <^^>  '  *s  ad()1'0(l-  From 
his  navel  a  lotus  bud  grew,  which,  when  it  developed,  produced  the 
world. 

The  Mandaeans  were  an  ancient  Oriental  sect  whose  religion 
was  made  up  of  a  mixture  of  elements  borrowed  or  appropriated 
from  Jewish,  Christian  and  Heathen  sources.  They  said  that  the 
origin  of  all  things  was  Pira,  "the  great  abyss,"  associated  with 
whom  and  forming  a  trinity  are  Avar  ziva  rabba  (the  "great 
shining  ether")  and  Mana  rabba  (the  "great  spirit  of  glory"). 

Along  with  Mana  rabba  is  D'mutha,  his  wife  or  image,  a  fe- 
male power.  The  demiurge  of  the  Mandaeans  made  Adam  and 
Eve,  but  was  unable  to  make  them  stand  upright;  so  Hibil,  Shithil 
and  Amush  were  sent  by  the  "first  life"  to  infuse  into  the  forms 
of  Adam  and  Eve  a  portion  of  the  essence  of  Mana  rabba  him- 
self. Hibil  then  taught  the  protoplasts  to  marry  and  how  to 
people  the  earth. 

The  Mandaeans  said  that  Estera  (Istar  or  Venus)  is  the  Holy 
Ghost;  the  devil  of  the  Mandaeans  was  Ruha,  who  was  female; 
she  gave  birth  to  three  sets  of  children,  who  were  translated  to 
heaven  and  became  the  constellations;  the  first  set  consisted  of 
seven,  and  they  became  the  seven  planets  (the  "seven  great 
gods") ;  another  set  consisted  of  twelve,  who  became  the  twelve 
zodiacal  constellations  or  signs  (the  "twelve  great  gods");  but 
the  record  of  what  became  of  her  third  set  of  five  children  has 
not  come  down  to  us. 

The  Mandaeans  were  similar  to  the  Gnostics;  they  performed 
baptism  by  total  immersion  in  running  water,  but  their  baptism 
docs  not  seem  to  have  been  as  effective  as  amongst  us,  as  it  had 
to  be  frequently  repeated;  their  name  for  holy  water  was 
"Jordan." 

Their  sacred  books  laid  much  stress  on  procreation,  and  like 
the  patriarchs  of  old  they  tried  to  do  their  duty  in  this  regard  by 
practicing  polygamy;  but  history  records  that  few  of  them  were 
rich  enough  to  acquire  and  maintain  more  than  two  wives. 

The  "great  abyss"  of  the  Mandaeans  occurs  also  in  various 
forms  in  other  mythologies.  Many  primitive  cosmogonies  con- 


124  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

sidered  water  as  a  pre-existent  material  which  held  in  solution, 
or  out  of  which  were  formed,  all  other  things.  Some  savage  peo- 
ple supposed  that  the  earth  grew  out  of  the  water,  which,  inci- 
dently,  is  how  geology  tells  us  that  the  continents  grew. 

The  Babylonian  mythology,  for  instance,  thought  that  water 
was  the  vehicle  of  life,  as  in  a  certain  sense  it  is,  for  where  there 
was  no  water  there  was  no  life — it  was  a  desert.  The  Babylo- 
nians imagined  an  abyss  of  water  to  have  been  made  pregnant 
by  a  male  creator,  who  arose  from  the  abyss  itself. 

King  Assurbanipal's  library  (about  VII  Century  B.C.)  speaks 
of  a  female  primeval  flood  or  abyss  called  Tiamat  and  a  mascu- 
line power.  Another  idea,  prevalent  especially  in  the  Pacific  Is- 
lands, is  that  the  earth  was  raised  or  fished  up  from  the  primeval 
water ;  living,  as  they  did,  on  a  comparatively  small  firm  land  sur- 
surrounded  on  all  sides  by  deep  water,  this  was  perhaps  a  quite 
rational  conclusion  of  the  islanders.  They  may  have  even  had 
traditional  knowledge  of  such  creation  of  land,  for  some  of  the 
islands  were  formed  by  volcanic  eruption  or  elevation. 

The  Japanese,  also  an  island-inhabiting  people,  had  a  myth 
that  a  rush  grew  out  of  the  earth  while  it  was  still  soft  mud  (com- 
pare Philo's  description  of  the  earth,  p.  105)  or  "like  oil  floating 
on  the  surface  of  water;"  this  rush  produced  (as  a  fruit?)  a 
"land-forming  god." 

Philo,  of  Byblus,  tells  about  several  Phoenician  cosmogonies. 
One  mentions  Baal  and  Tanith  as  the  male  and  female  principles, 
the  conjugal  union  of  whom  produced  creation.  In  another  of 
these  cosmogonies  is  mentioned  a  woman,  Baau,  which  name  is 
interpreted  as  night;  probably  she  was  identical  with  Bohu,  the 
Hebrew  name  in  the  Mosaic  account  (Gen.  i,  2)  which  is  translated 
chaos,  or  with  the  Babylonian  Tiamat,  confusion. 

The  Polynesians  speak  of  the  "heaven-god  Tangaloa"  as  a 
great  bird  hovering  over  the  waters;  an  idea  probably  derived 
from  the  same  folklore  from  which  Moses  adopted  the  expression 
"the  spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters"  (Gen.  i,  2). 

In  the  Avesta,  the  Persian  sacred  books,  which  were  reduced 
to  writing  probably  a  little  earlier  than  were  the  books  of  Moses, 
the  God  Ahura-Mazda  is  represented  as  creating  the  world  out 
of  nothing  by  the  exercise  of  his  will. 

In  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  of  about  the  time  of  Darius  and 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  125 

Xerxes,  Ahum-Mazda  is  called  the  "great  god  of  gods,  who  made 
heaven  and  earth  and  men." 

This  abyss  of  waters,  however,  was  not  merely  the  creative 
flux  out  of  which  came  creation,  but  in  many  cosmogonies  it  also 
became  a  destructive  agent.  Many  mythologies  believe  in  suc- 
cessive destructions  and  re-creations  of  the  world,  as  for  instance, 
the  story  in  the  Bible  (Gen.  vi,  vii,  and  viii) ;  this  idea  ascribes 
to  the  flood  of  waters  the  same  function  that  the  Hindus  ascribe 
to  Siva — Destruction  and  Reproduction.  This  same,  or  a  very 
similar  story  is  known  in  almost  all  the  mythologies  of  the  world, 
in  the  old  as  well  as  in  the  new  continent.  The  Assyrian  account 
which  is  about  a  thousand  years  older  than  the  Mosaic  account,  is 
very  similar  to  the  latter. 

The  idea  that  the  flood  was  sent  as  a  punishment  for  the 
sins  of  the  people  was  also  very  widespread.  That  is  the  reason 
given  for  the  flood  in  the  Bible.  It  was  also  the  cause  of  the  flood 
in  the  Hindu  sacred  writings,  which  relate  that  Vishnu  became 
incarnated  as  a  fish  who  held  up  the  earth  and  thus  became  its 
savior. 

Ovid  (a  Greek  poet,  B.C.  43  to  17  A.D.)  said  that  the  Golden 
Age,  or  the  earliest  age  of  man,  was  one  of  simplicity  and  inno- 
cence, but  it  gradually  degenerated  until  corruption  was  so  great 
that  Zeus  sent  a  flood  to  destroy  mankind. 

Catlin  tells  us  that  among  the  North  American  Indians  there 
is  not  a  tribe  that  has  not  a  tradition  of  a  great  flood ;  it  is  possi- 
ble that  such  myths  as  that  of  the  destruction  of  Atlantis,  etc., 
and  all  the  other  flood  stories  are  based  on  the  experiences  of 
Pacific  Islanders,  whose  "worlds"  are  subject  to  occasional  par- 
tial or  even  nearly  complete  destruction  by  the  tidal  waves  or 
floods  which  are  caused  by  the  volcanic  disturbances  in  that  part 
of  the  world ;  but  it  is  of  course  also  possible  that  the  story  of  the 
flood  was  brought  to  the  Indians  by  early  missionaries. 

In  India,  in  1876,  a  tidal  wave  rushed  in  upon  the  land,  and 
as  it  retreated  to  the  sea,  it  carried  with  it  150,000  of  the  inhab- 
itants, together  with  all  their  belongings.  In  days  before  the 
telegraph  or  mail  service,  such  a  disaster  would  be  more  or  less 
local,  but  it  would  live  in  the  memories  of  the  survivors,  or  of 
the  neighboring  people,  for  many  generations,  and  give  rise  to  a 
tradition  of  a  flood,  and  as  such  floods  may  have  occurred  in  va- 
rious places  and  many  times,  this  would  be  ample  to  account  for 


1  L.T)  SEX    AXD    SEX    WORSHIP 

a  universal  tradition  of  a  flood,  that  need  not  have  been  the  same 
flood. 

Like  in  the  story  of  the  Bible,  another  pair  of  "first  par- 
ents" must  be  provided,  to  continue  the  race  of  mankind.  These 
are  either  supplied  by  new  creations,  or  by  the  survival  of  a  few 
individuals  as  in  the  Bible  myth  which  makes  Noah  and  his  wife 
"the  second  Adam  and  Eve,"  as  they  are  called  by  the  Arabians. 
Of  course  the  general  theories  of  creation,  as  due  to  sex,  make 
such  a  feature  of  a  deluge  myth  a  necessity. 

Primitive  man,  at  some  time  or  other,  must  have  commenced 
to  speculate  on  the  origin  or  source  of  life.  It  is  not  inconceiv- 
able that  the  troglodites,  living  in  their  caves,  depending  for  food 
on  the  hunt,  and  chase,  came  across  some  eggs  just  as  they  were 
hatching,  and  generalizing  from  such  observations  the  egg  be- 
came to  them  an  early  and  primitive  conception  of  the  source 
of  life  and  creation;  and  the  "cosmic  egg"  became  a  feature  of 
many  mythologies  and  cosmogonies.  From  this  egg  originated 
our  universe  and  all  that  it  contains,  including  our  earth,  our 
gods  and  men.  The  myth  of  a  cosmic  egg  occurs  in  Phoenician 
Egyptian,  Indian,  Chinese,  Polynesian  and  Finland  mythologies, 
associated  with  one  or  another,  or  several,  of  the  ideas  concerning 
the  abyss,  a  male  god  who  fertilized  it,  mixture,  generation,  fra- 
gility, the  domelike  appearance  of  the  sky,  and  the  form  of  the 
sun,  moon  and  planets. 

Xo  ideas  of  sex  seem  to  have  been  connected  A^dth  the  cosmic 
egg  in  the  earlier  cosmogonies.  The  egg  was  not  yet  associated 
with,  or  recognized  as  a  manifestation  or  characteristic  of  the 
feminine,  as  it  was  later  on. 

The  Hindu  god  Brahma  who  produced  it  was  male.  So  was 
the  Egyptian  god  Seb,  who  produced  it;  the  Egyptians  figured 
many  of  their  deities  in  the  form  of  animals  and  Seb,  the  producer 
of  the  cosmic  egg,  was  represented  in  the  image  of  the  goose. 

In  the  S'atapatha  Brahmana  is  an  account  of  the  "primeval 
waters ' '  and  a  cosmic  or  world-egg ;  according  to  one  account  this 
egg  produced  Prajapati,  according  to  another  account  Prajapati 
produced  the  cosmic  egg.  A  little  later,  in  India,  we  find  the  myth 
of  a  "self-existent  Lord"  who  created  "by  a  thought."  He  cre- 
ated the  waters  and  deposited  in  them  a  seed  which  grew  into  a 
golden  egg,  from  which  egg  he  himself  was  born  as  Brahma,  the 
"progenitor  of  all  the  worlds." 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  127 

Apuleius,  an  ancient  Latin  writer,  ''saw  in  the  egg  the  sym- 
bol of  all  that  was,  that  is,  and  that  is  possible  to  be,"  and  modern 
biology  teaches  that  the  ovum,  or  egg,  is  the  highest  manifestation 
of  life,  to  which  all  other  phenomena  of  life  arc  subservient  and 
contributary. 

In  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  of  about  the  time  of  Darius  and 
Xerxes,  Ahura-Mazda  is  called  the  "great  god  of  gods,  who  made 
heaven  and  earth  and  men." 

SEX  IN  PLANTS,  AND  TOTEMISM 

The  germs  of  botanical  science  are  found  in  a  rudimentary 
form  in  very  remote  antiquity.  The  beginning  of  a  science  may 
be  considered  to  be  that  time  when  the  subject  to  which  it  relates 
first  engaged  the  thought  and  incited  the  investigations  in  regard 
to  the  particular  natural  phenomena  by  early  mankind. 

The  actual  achievements  are  not  of  material  consideration  in 
this  connection;  the  fact  that  a  subject  became  ah  object  of  study 
and  speculation  at  a  certain  period  constitutes  the  "germ"  or 
"beginning"  of  the  science,  regardless  of  the  question  whether 
these  early  theories  stood  the  test  of  time  and  were  found  cor- 
rect, or  whether  they  were  afterwards  abandoned  because  they 
were  proved  to  be  incorrect. 

It  can  only  be  in  this  sense  that  it  can  be  said  truthfully  that 
the  germs  of  botanical  science  are  traceable  in  remote  antiquity. 

Figuier,  in  Vegetable  World,  says  that  the  ancients  already 
held  the  view  that  plants  were  sexual,  and  says  this  as  if  such  an- 
cient assumption  was  based  on  more  or  less  scientific  foundation. 
It  is  therefore  of  interest  to  examine  the  ancient  views  on  sex,  and 
this  will  show  that  Figuier 's  assertion  is  erroneous  and  that  the 
idea  that  the  ancients  kneiv  plants  to  be  sexual  rests  on  very  slim 
premises. 

Primitive  men  conceived  every  object  as  being  personal  and 
to  be  endowed  with  passions  and  attributes  like  themselves ;  even 
the  most  abstract  phenomena,  like  sky,  earth,  wind,  fire,  etc.,  even 
the  stones  and  plants  were  regarded  as  persons.  All  things,  ani- 
mate and  inanimate,  were  supposed  to  be  sexual  and  to  produce 
either  their  own  kind,  or  any  other  kind  of  being,  by  processes 
analogous  to  those  by  which  human  offspring  was  produced. 

Even  the  soil  and  stones  were  supposed  to  be  able  to  produce 


128  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

human  beings,  and  the  ancient  Greeks  called  men  who  sprang 
from  their  soil  "autochthones."  Even  our  negroes,  who  still  cul- 
tivate many  features  of  voodoo  worship,  consider  lodestones  to 
be  powerful  fetiches  or  love-charms,  and  know  how  to  distinguish 
between  the  "male"  and  "female"  lodestones. 

With  such  ideas  prevailing,  it  was  but  natural  that  all  living 
things,  animal  or  vegetable,  were  considered  to  be  related  to  each 
other,  and  that  they  all,  like  humankind,  were  male  and  female. 
And  animals  and  plants  came  to  be  regarded  as  the  ancestors  of 
the  human  race,  or  at  least  of  certain  tribes  or  people.  This  is 
Totemism. 

While  totemism  generally  considers  man  as  descended  from 
and  therefore  related  to  certain  animals  (totems),  there  are  tribes 
who  claim  to  be  descended  from  and  related  to  certain  plants. 
Such  tribes  could  not  kill  any  animal  for  food  or  use  any  plant 
that  was  "totem"  to  them;  such  animal  or  plant  was  tapu  (taboo) 
to  them. 

Among  the  Bed  Maize  Clan  of  Omahas  (North  American  In- 
dians) the  red  maize  was  considered  to  be  their  totem  or  ancestor, 
and  members  of  this  tribe  may  not  eat  red  maize. 

Among  the  ancient  Norsemen,  Yggdrasil  was  the  tree  of  life 
from  which  all  living  beings  sprang.  It  reached  with  its  roots  to 
all  parts  of  the  earth,  and  produced  all  the  inhabitants  of  the 
earth;  its  roots  reached  to  the  lowest  depths  of  the  under-world 
and  produced  the  demons  and  evil  spirits;  and  its  branches 
reached  up  into  the  air,  and  produced  all  the  creatures  that  live  in 
the  air,  and  its  uppermost  branches  reached  into  heaven  and  pro- 
duced the  gods,  thus  binding  all  life  into  one  relationship. 

Yggdrasil  was  an  ash-tree  (Fraxinus)  and  was  the  ancestor 
(or  the  male  ancestor)  of  mankind.  "Fru  Eller"  (Alder,  Alnus], 
according  to  Norse  mythology,  was  the  female  progenitress,  or 
ancestress,  of  mankind.  Such  and  similar  was  the  origin  of  the 
ancient  belief  that  plants  had  sexual  attributes.  We  will  consider 
a  few  more  of  these  ancient  (and  modern  uncivilized)  notions  in 
regard  to  sex. 

The  Persians  imagined  the  first  tree  and  the  first  bull  to  have 
been  the  first  ancestors  of  the  human  race;  as  the  bull  was  their 
symbol  of  their  male  creator,  the  tree  must  have  been  their  first 
female  ancestress.  They  discovered,  in  physics  generally,  two 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  129 

antagonistic,  or  rather  complementary,  principles,  ono  male,  the 
other  female. 

In  Maori  mythology  some  of  the  gods  were  vegetable,  some 
animal  in  nature.  So  also  in  Hindu  mythology. 

Those  of  the  people  of  Ambon  who  are  descendants  from 
trees  may  not  use  their  totem  trees  for  firewood.  An  Ormon  clan 
whose  totem  is  the  Kuj-rar  tree  will  not  eat  of  the  oil  obtained 
from  that  tree,  nor  even  sit  in  its  shade. 

The  Eddas  say  that  the  first  man  came  from  an  ash-tree ;  the 
first  woman  from  an  alder-tree  (the  ash-tree  a  variety  of  Frax- 
inus;  the  alder-tree,  Alnus  incana,  ''Erie"). 

In  making  fire  by  friction  a  hole  was  made  in  a  block  of  alder 
(yonic)  and  the  stick  which  was  twirled  in  this  hole  was  of  ash 
(phallic),  the  two  by  friction  producing  fire  (heat  and  life).  The 
ancient  Greeks  explained  that  Prometheus  brought  fire  to  man- 
kind, hidden  in  a  staff;  this  explained  why,  by  rubbing  staffs  to- 
gether, the  fire  could  be  set  free  again. 

The  ancient  Teutons  considered  the  oak-tree  male,  because 
the  acorn  looks  like  a  glans  penis  with  its  prepuce  (acorn  in  its 
cupule). 

A  modern  example  of  this  method  of  grouping  plants  into 
male  and  female  prevails  in  some  rural  districts  of  England,  with 
regard  to  the  holly  (Ilex  aquifolium).  This  plant  is  dioecious  and 
the  British  Encyclopaedia  says  that  it  changes  sex  from  male  to 
female  with  age.  The  common  people,  however,  distinguish  two 
varieties  of  the  plant ;  one  variety  which  is  prickly  and  rough  and 
is  called  "he  holly,"  the  other  variety,  which  is  smooth  or  non- 
prickly,  is  "she  holly,"  in  analogy  to  the  human  body,  which  in 
the  male  is  bearded  and  hairy  on  the  body,  while  the  female  body 
is  smooth  and  devoid  of  hair. 

In  some  parts  of  Europe  children  are  said  to  be  found  in 
lakes,  from  which  they  are  brought  by  storks.  In  other  parts  they 
are  said  to  grow  on  trees,  or  to  be  found  in  hollow  trees. 

The  birch-tree  (Betula  alba)  is  considered  to  be  feminine  in 
Bavaria,  and  children  are  said  to  come  from  birch-trees,  or  to  be 
found  in  hollow  birch-trees.  A  newly-born  girl  baby  is  bathed  in 
a  tub  made  of  birch-wood  so  that  when  she  grows  up  she  will  be 
attractive  to  the  men. 

The  beech  (Fagus)  is  considered  also  to  be  female,  and  in 
some  provinces  it  is  regarded  in  the  same  manner  as  the  birch. 


130  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

The  Lupercalia  were  old  Roman  festivals  on  which  occasions 
women  ran  about  naked  so  that  they  could  be  whipped  on  their 
bare  posteriors,  to  make  them  fertile.  This  festival  survives  in 
some  primitive  communities  of  continental  Europe.  Children  are 
whipped  with  birch-switches  ("Lebens-ruthen,"  life-switches), 
otherwise  they  will  not  thrive  or  grow,  but  remain  stunted.  In 
many  parts  of  Europe  female  domestic  animals  as  well  as  the 
women  of  the  household  are  whipped  on  the  bare  genitals  with 
birch-switches  on  Halloween  eve  by  the  men  of  the  household ;  this 
is  supposed  to  insure  fertility  and  healthy  offspring. 

In  parts  of  Russia  the  husbands  whip  their  wives  on  the  bare 
posteriors  with  birch  twigs  to  make  them  fertile  and  to  insure  easy 
and  safe  child-birth.  A  woman  whose  husband  does  not  whip  her 
thinks  he  does  not  love  her.  The  trousseau  of  the  bride  contains 
the  necessary  bundle  of  birch  rods  or  switches  ("Ruhte;"  also 
in  German  the  name  of  the  male  virile  organ). 

In  Poland,  for  the  same  reason,  the  bride  is  driven  to  the 
nuptial  bed  by  the  matrons  with  a  rod  of  fir,  which  is  there  con- 
sidered in  the  same  way  as  the  birch  is  elsewhere.  The  "up- 
standing" growth  of  the  fir  is  very  suggestive  of  a  prominent 
characteristic  of  the  male  member. 

In  Japan  the  fir  is  a  symbol  of  the  masculine ;  the  plum-tree, 
of  the  feminine.  At  weddings  dwarf  trees  of  these  two  kinds  are 
used  as  table  decorations. 

In  India,  when  a  Hindu  plants  a  grove  of  mango  trees,  he 
will  not  take  the  fruit  of  the  grove  before  the  trees  have  been  mar- 
ried (with  full  Brahmanic  rites  and  ritual)  to  some  other  kind  of 
tree,  usually  a  tamarind,  sometimes  an  acacia.  It  is  considered  a 
disgrace  if  the  mango  trees  commence  to  bear  fruit  before  this 
marriage  has  been  celebrated. 

In  the  Punjab  a  Hindu  can  not  legally  be  married  to  a 
"third"  woman;  he  gets  around  the  difficulty  by  marrying  a 
"babul"  tree,  so  that  the  wife  he  subsequently  marries  is  counted 
as  his  fourth. 

In  Bengal  both  bride  and  bridegroom  are  married  to  trees  be- 
fore they  are  married  to  each  other. 

Kipling  wrote:  "Lalun  is  a  member  of  the  most  ancient  pro- 
fession in  the  world.  In  the  West  people  say  rude  things  about 
Lalun's  profession  and  distribute  lectures  to  young  people  in  or- 
der that  morality  may  be  preserved.  *  *  *  Lalun's  real  hus- 


SEX    AND   SEX   WORSHIP  131 

band,  for  even  ladies  of  Lalun's  profession  in  the  East  must  have 
husbands,  was  a  great  big  jujube-tree  for  that  is  the 

custom  of  the  land.  The  advantages  of  having  a  jujube-tree  for 
a  husband  are  obvious :  you  can  not  hurt  his  feelings,  he  looks 
imposing,  and  he  does  not  become  jealous." 

In  Germany  formerly,  when  a  child  was  baptized,  a  ''birth- 
tree"  was  planted;  a  male  tree  for  a  boy  and  a  female  tree  for  a 
girl;  this  was  also  done  for  one  of  President  Wilson's  grand- 
children. According  to  Albert  Magnus  (about  1250  A.D.),  the 
trees  used  for  this  ceremonial  were  the  pear-tree,  which  was  mas- 
culine, and  the  apple-tree,  which  was  feminine.  The  health  and 
growth  of  the  children  were  supposed  to  depend  on  the  manner 
in  which  the  trees  thrived. 

Among  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Komans  all  trees  that  bore 
fruit  were  considered  female ;  grammatically  they  were  considered 
feminine,  even  if  the  names  had  masculine  endings ;  the  adjectives 
were  feminine.  In  our  scientific  nomenclature  we  have  retained 
this  grammatical  gender  (or  sex).  Primus,  i.  f.,  II  Decl.,  plum- 
tree;  as  Prunus  domestica,  adj.  fern.  Amygdalus,  i.  f.,  II  Decl., 
almond-tree;  as  Amygdalus  communis,  var.  amara,  adj.  fern. 
Quercus,  us,  fern.  IV  Decl.,  oak-tree;  as  Quercus  infectoria,  adj. 
fern. 

This  applies  also  to  many  smaller  plants,  although  not  as 
regularly  so:  Avena  sativa,  fern.,  oats;  Oryza  sativa,  fern.,  rice. 

But  enough  for  the  present  of  plant  folklore;  it  shows  that 
no  element  of  a  scientific  nature  entered  into  the  widespread  an- 
cient belief  that  plants  were  sexual  in  their  natures. 

In  Gen.  i,  11,  we  read:  "And  God  said,  Let  the  earth  bring 
forth  grass,  the  herb  yielding  seed,  and  the  fruit-tree  yielding 
fruit  after  his  kind,  whose  seed  is  in  itself;  and  it  was  so."  Sci- 
ence teaches  us  that  the  first  life  on  earth  was  vegetable  life.  And 
very  low  in  the  scale  of  life  among  the  algae  we  find  sex ;  conse- 
quently sex  existed  probably  before  there  were  any  animals. 

In  Cruden's  Concordance  of  the  Bible,  the  first  edition  of 
which  was  published  in  1737,  but  the  edition  which  I  have,  and 
from  which  I  quote,  printed  in  1829,  we  find  the  following  defini- 
tion of  seed:  "Seed — that  thin,  hot  and  spirituous  humour  in 
man's  body  which  is  fitted  by  nature  for  the  generation  of  man- 
kind (Gen.  xxxviii,  9).  Likewise  for  that  matter  which  in  all 
plants  and  fruits  is  disposed  for  the  propagation  of  the  kind." 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

The  oldest  mention  of  botanical  lore  was  found  in  Assyrian 
and  Egyptian  inscriptions.  In  a  tomb  at  Thebes  a  wall-painting 
was  found  which  represents  a  botanical  garden,  and  this  is  the 
earliest  mention  of  the  cultivation  of  exotic  plants  (Fig.  37).  A 
contemporary  record  on  a  temple  wall  at  Thebes  states  that  an 
expedition  was  sent  by  Queen  Hasop  (about  1600  B.C.)  to  bring 
incense  trees  from  Punt  (modern  Somaliland)  to  be  planted  in  the 
gardens  connected  with  the  temple  for  the  purpose  of  cultivating 
incense  for  the  temple  ceremonials. 

An  early  attempt  at  botanical  illustration  is  a  Babylonian 
sculpture  (about  680  B.C.)  showing  Assurbanipal's  queen  at  a  meal 


Fig.  37. — A  botanical  garden,  from  a  tomb  at  Thebes,  Egypt,  1900  B.C. 

(Fig.  38) ;  among  the  plants  in  the  background  are  a  date  palm 
and  a  grapevine,  both  of  which  are  quite  characteristically  de- 
picted. 

In  Sardanapal's  library  (650  B.C.)  were  figured  plants  and 
plant  parts  used  in  medicine,  which  were  stated  to  be  copied  from 
inscriptions  going  back  to  between  4000  and  5000  B.C. 

The  promoters  of  botany  among  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Ro- 
mans were  not,  properly  speaking,  botanists,  but  rhizotomce  or 
pliarmacopolce,  gatherers  of  and  dealers  in  medicinal  roots  and 
herbs.  Aristotle,  Mithridates,  Cato,  Virgil,  Dioscorides  and  the 
elder  Pliny,  however,  all  wrote  on  botany  or  the  wonders  of  vege- 
tation. The  most  learned  and  important  works  on  this  subject 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


133 


were  the  works  of  Theophrastus  (IV  Century  B.C.).  He  men- 
tions sexuality  of  plants,  but  did  not  determine  any  special  sexual 
organs. 

Of  course  it  may  have  been  empirically  noted  at  a  quite  early 
time  that  some  plants  never  bore  fruit,  while  others  of  the  same 
kind  did  produce  fruit.  The  ancients  considered  fruit-bearing 
plants  as  female  by  analogy  with  mankind  or  themselves;  the 
plants  that  did  not  produce  fruit  were  therefore  male.  Some 
dioecious  plants,  like  hemp,  were  of  this  kind ;  so  were  date  palms ; 
and  this  empirical  observation  led  the  ancients  to  speak  of  male 
and  female  plants  without  their  having  any  real  scientific  under- 
standing of  the  facts. 

The  works  of  Theophrastus  remained  the  most    important 


Fig.  38. — An  Assyrian  sculpture  showing  date-palm  and  grape-vine,  about  680  B.C. 

works  on  botany  until  comparatively  recent  times,  in  fact,  until 
the  times  of  Linnaeus  and  his  contemporaries. 

Herodotus,  who  wrote  about  450  years  B.C.,  recorded  that  the 
female  date-trees  had  to  be  fertilized  by  shaking  among  their 
flower-clusters  the  flower-clusters  from  the  male  trees.  This  pro 
cedure,  as  just  explained,  must  have  been  due  to  empirical  expe- 
rience and  not  to  scientific  understanding,  and  the  fertilizing 
power  was  even  ascribed  to  the  multitude  of  small  gnats  that  were 
shaken  out  of  the  male  clusters  of  flowers. 

Thomas  de  Garbo,  in  629  A.D.,  taught  that  plants  were  not  nec- 
essarily produced  by  seeds,  but  could  be  produced  through  fer- 
mentation. 


134  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

Alpini,  a  physician  and  botanist  who  lived  1553-1617  A.D., 
wrote:  "The  female  date-palms  do  not  bear  fruits  unless  the 
branches  of  the  male  and  female  plants  are  mixed  together;  or, 
as  is  more  generally  done,  unless  the  dust  found  in  the  male  sheath 
or  male  flower  is  sprinkled  over  the  female  flowers. ' '  There  does 
not  appear  any  reason  to  place  Alpini 's  opinion  on  other  than 
purely  empiric  experience. 

"When  alchemists  realized  the  futility  or  absurdity  of  their 
search  for  the  "philosopher's  stone"  which  was  to  transmute 
baser  metals  to  gold,  or  for  the  "elixir  of  life"  which  would  cure 
all  diseases  and  prolong  life  indefinitely,  they  turned  their  atten- 
tion to  the  solving  of  the  mystery  of  generation;  the  mystery  of 
Adam  and  Eve,  the  "red  man"  and  the  "white  woman"  of  Gen- 
esis in  the  Bible;  the  mystery  of  sex. 

Caesalpinus  (1519-1603  A.D.),  a  learned  Italian  scientist,  pub- 
lished a  work  entitled  De  Plantis  Libri  xvi,  in  1583  A.D.  In  this 
work  the  author  suggested  a  classification  of  plants  which  more 
or  less  distinctly  foreshadowed  both  the  Linnaean  system  and  the 
Natural  system  of  Jussieu  and  which  he  based  on  characteristics 
of  flowers,  stamens,  pistils  and  fruits.  In  this  work  he  recognized 
that  plants  were  sexual,  but  he  speaks  of  the  "halitus"  (breath, 
exhalation,  perfume?)  as  the  fertilizing  agent.  Caesalpinus,  as 
late  as  1600  A.D.,  referred  to  a  "fialitus  or  breath,  an  immaterial 
emanation,  -exhalation  or  vapor,"  practically  the  perfume  from 
the  male  plants  as  causing  fertility  in  the  female  plant.  His  views 
on  the  anthers  and  pistils,  however,  do  not  seem  to  have  become 
generally  known  nor  generally  accepted. 

In  the  year  1682  A.D.  Nehemiah  Grew,  secretary  of  the  Soci- 
ety of  London,  published  his  Anatomy  of  Plants,  in  which  the  na- 
ture of  the  stamens  and  pistils  as  the  male  and  female  organs  of 
plants  was  distinctly  asserted. 

In  1694  A.D.  Camerarius,  a  German  botanist,  also  described  the 
stamens  as  male  organs  and  the  pistils  as  female  organs,  in  a  book 
entitled  De  Sexu  Plantarum. 

In  1684  A.D.  the  French  botanist  Tournefort  published  his 
Elements  of  Botany,  being  the  first  attempt  to  define  the  exact 
limits  of  genera  in  vegetables.  Most  of  his  genera  are  still  recog- 
nized in  modern  classifications.  The  great  mistake  of  his  classi- 
fication, however,  was  his  division  of  all  plants  into  two  classes, 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  135 

"Trees  and  Herbs;"  the  groat  merit,  on  the  other  hand,  was  the 
importance  given  to  the  study  of  the  flower. 
His  scheme  in  outline  is  as  follows: 

Flower-bearing  trees: 

Apetalousf  Apetalous'  Pr°Perly  so  called 
[Amentaceae,  having  catkins 

|  Monopetalous 
Petalous   J  JRegular,  Rosaceae 

[Polypetalous   {irregular,  Papilionacerc 

Herbaceous  plants  without  corolla: 

1.  Plants  provided  with  stamens  (wheat,  barley,  rice,  etc.). 

2.  Flowerless  plants  with  seeds  (ferns,  lichens,  etc.). 

3.  Plants  in  which  flowers  and  fruits  are  not  apparent. 

Simple-floivering  herbaceous  plants: 

Corolla  monopetalous{Regular 

[Irregular 

Corolla  polypetalous   (ReSular 

Hrregular 

Compound  flowering  herbaceous  plants: 
Composite. 

While  Caesalpinus,  Grew  and  Camerarius  had  promulgated 
the  idea  that  plants  possessed  sexual  parts,  Tournefort  remained 
sceptical  and  did  not  accept  such  views.  However,  his  system  of 
classification  was  so  superior  to  previous  systems  that  it  brought 
order  where  confusion  had  previously  existed,  and  modern  scien- 
tific botany  practically  originated  with  Tournefort. 

John  Ray,  an  English  botanist,  published  his  Historia  Plan- 
tarum  in  1686  A.D.  ;  in  this  work  he  laid  the  foundations  for  modern 
natural  systems  of  classification. 

The  main  plan  of  Ray's  system  is  as  follows: 

[Flowerless  plants 

Plants  ]Tv,         •  [Monocotyledonous 

1 1  lowering  plants  |  Dicotyledonous 

Divided  into  woody  trees  and  herbaceous  plants. 
Further  subdivisions  based  on  the  fruits. 


136 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


In  1735  A.D.  Linnaeus  presented  the  theory  that  stamens  were 
male  organs  and  pistils  female  organs  of  plants  with  such  con- 
vincing emphasis  that  he  compelled  universal  acceptance  of  this 
view.  So  little  known,  apparently,  were  the  previously  published 
views  of  Caesalpinus,  Grew  and  Camerarius,  that  Linnaeus  is  gen- 
erally considered  to  have  been  the  first  one  to  explain  the  nature  of 
stamens  and  pistils  and  to  firmly  establish  the  fact  that  plants 
have  sex.  He  rendered  the  theory  popular  by  basing  on  it  his 
system  of  classification,  which  is  even  to  this  day  used  in  the 
schools  in  some  European  lands. 

The  structure  of  a  flower,  and  the  nature  of  fertilization,  are 
shown  in  Fig.  39.  The  anther  cells  produce  the  pollen  grains, 


Fig.  39. — Section  of  flower,  and  section  of  ovu'ra,    above;  shows  fertilization.     Various 

pollen  grains  below. 

which  fall  on  the  stigma  of  the  ovary  (female  part),  and  are  pro- 
longed into  a  tube  which  carries  the  protoplasm  of  the  male  cell 
down  into  the  interior  of  the  ovary  where  it  comes  in  contact  with 
the  protoplasmic  matter  of  the  ovum  or  female  cell.  The  result 
is  fertilization  and  the  growth  of  the  embryo. 

While  modifications  of  Ray's  system  constitute  the  Natural 
systems  of  modern  times,  the  Linnaean  system  still  forms  an  arti- 
ficial key  to  the  Natural  systems,  and  the  terms  of  this  system  are 
generally  used  in  the  description  of  plants  and  flowers. 

That  this  demonstration  of  the  sexual  nature  of  plants  was 
novel  is  seen  from  the  interest,  even  enthusiasm,  with  which  it 
was  received.  Erasmus  Darwin,  the  grandfather  of  Charles  Dar- 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  137 

win,  published  a  poem,  "The  Loves  of  the  Flowers,"  which  was 
illustrated  with  a  series  of  fine  steel  engravings  (Fig.  40):  and 
the  rapid  acceptance  of  the  Linnaean  system  everywhere  is  gen- 
erally known. 

In  1789  A.D.  Laurent  de  Jussieu  published  his  Genera  Plan- 
tarum,  which  is  the  basis  of  all  modern  natural  systems  of  classi- 
fication ;  we  thus  bring  down  the  history  of  taxonomy  to  our  own 
times. 

During  the  last  75  or  100  years  many  botanists  have  attempted 
various  systems  of  classification  based  on  the  consideration  of 


Fig.  40. — "Cupid  Among  the  Flowers, "  from  the  "Loves  of  the  Flowers,"  by 

Darwin. 

the  cotyledons ;  of  polypetalous,  monopetalous  and  apetalous  flow- 
ers; upon  the  mode  of  insertion  of  the  stamens:  names  have 
changed,  things  remain  the  same ;  and  if  in  their  details  the  series 
of  families  or  orders  present  certain  differences  it  only  arises 
from  the  fact  that  a  linear  series  is  incompatible  with  the  natural 
system,  and  that  the  connection  of  the  intermediate  groups  may  be 
expressed  in  various  ways  without  affecting  the  general  princi- 
ples of  the  system. 

While  Linnaeus  established  the  main  facts  of  the  nature  of 
the  sexual  organs  in  plants,  the  exact  method  of  fertilization  re- 
mained as  obscure  as  that  in  the  case  of  animals.  The  pollen  was 


138  SEX    AXD    SEX    WORSHIP 

recognized  as  the  matter  which  fecundated  the  ovary,  but  it  re- 
mained a  question  as  to  the  manner  in  which  it  did  so. 

It  was  at  first  thought  that  the  grains  of  pollen  broke  on  the 
stigmas  and  that  the  granules  were  absorbed  by  the  stigma  and 
went  to  form  the  embryo.  In  1823  A.D.  Amici,  an  Italian  botanist, 
discovered  the  pollen-tubes.  About  1837  A.D.  Schleiden  and 
Hoeckel  announced  that  the  vegetable  embryo  preexisted  as  a  germ 
within  the  pollen  grains;  it  is  carried  at  the  end  of  the  pollen- 
tube  to  the  embryonic  sac,  where  it  develops  into  the  seed  or 
embryo. 

Whether  this  was  a  conscious  effort  to  harmonize  the  fertil- 
ization of  plants  with  the  views  held  so  long  in  regard  to  animals 
and  man  (see  p.  140),  views  that  were  apparently  in  harmony  with 
the  teachings  of  the  Bible,  that  the  seed  or  embryo  issued  from 
the  sexual  parts  of  the  male,  or  father,  I  can  not  say ;  that  it  was 
such  there  can  be  no  doubt. 

Schleiden 's  theory  of  the  preexistence  of  the  embryo  in  the 
pollen  grains  was  shown  to  be  wrong  by  the  observations  of 
Brongniart,  Amici,  Mohl,  linger,  Hoffmeister,  and  others. 

In  1849  A.D.  Tulasne  published  his  studies  on  vegetable  em- 
bryogeny  and  finally  established  the  theory  of  fertilization  as 
taught  today,  namely,  that  the  male  and  -female  elements  unite  to 
form  the  embryo. 

About  1876  A.D.  the  nuclear  theory  of  fertilization  was  demon- 
strated. The  successive  steps  in  karyokinesis  and  the  importance 
of  chromosomes  were  demonstrated. 

This  does  not  mean  that  all  the  secrets  of  the  process  are 
clear ;  hundreds  of  men  of  science  are  still  trying  to  solve  further 
mysteries  of  heredity,  etc.,  but  these  mysteries,  while  constituting 
the  most  fertile  field  for  research  and  investigation,  do  not  par- 
ticularly interest  us  now  in  connection  with  this  attempt  to  fix  the 
niche  which  is  filled  by  Linnaeus  in  connection  with  the  develop- 
ment of  Vegetable  Taxonomy. 

SEX  IN  ANIMALS 

Ancient  Ideas 

Of  course,  sex  was  more  distinctly  apparent  in  animals  and 
mankind  than  in  plants,  but  even  here,  the  ideas  as  to  the  sexual 
process  were  vague  and  wholly  unscientific.  In  fact,  the  earliest 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  130 

references,  in  the  oldest  mythologies,  did  not  always  assume  two 
complementary  principles  or  agencies  (sometimes  spoken  of  as 
" antagonistic  principles"),  but  seem  to  have  taught  that  the  Cre- 
ator was  of  hermaphrodite  nature.  I  have  already  stated  that  in 
early  cosmogonies  the  cosmic  egg  was  not  associated  with  a  fem- 
inine or  not  even  with  any  sexual  agency. 

In  New  Zealand,  Chinese,  Vedic,  Indian  and  Greek  myths 
Heaven  (sky)  and  Earth  constituted  a  hermaphrodite  being;  their 
union  was  perpetual.  Only  later  on  were  they  considered  as  a 
pair,  or  as  unisexual  and  dual. 

The  Pur  ana,  a  sacred  Brahminic  book,  says:  "The  Supreme 
Spirit,  in  the  act  of  creation,  became  twofold;  the  right  side  was 
male,  the  left  was  Prakriti.  She  is  Maia,  eternal  and  imperish- 
able." Again:  "The  Divine  Cause  of  Creation  experienced  no 
bliss,  being  isolated — alone.  He  ardently  desired  a  companion; 
and  immediately  the  desire  was  gratified.  He  caused  his  body  to 
divide  and  become  male  and  female.  They  united  and  human  be- 
ings were  thus  made." 

In  imitation  of  this  ancient  theory  that  the  Creator  was  an- 
drogynous or  hermaphrodite  some  philosophers  held  the  same 
view  with  regard  to  Jehovah  (or  Elohim),  the  god  of  the  Bible. 
We  read  in  the  twenty-seventh  verse  of  the  first  chapter  of  Gen- 
esis: "So  God  created  man  in  his  own  image;  male  and  female 
created  he  them."  And  this  is  emphasized  by  repetition  in  the 
more  explicit  statement  in  verses  1  and  2,  Gen.  v:  "In  the  day 
that  God  created  man,  in  the  likeness  of  God  made  he  them ;  and 
God  blessed  them,  and  called  their  'name  Adam." 

The  Talmud  (Hebrew  Traditions)  says  that  Adam  was  cre- 
ated androgynous.  His  head  reached  the  clouds.  God  caused  a 
sleep  to  fall  on  him,  and  took  something  away  from  all  his  mem- 
bers, and  these  parts  he  fashioned  into  ordinary  men  and  women, 
and  scattered  them  through  the  world. 

After  Lilith,  Adam's  first  wife,  mother  of  demons  and  giants, 
deserted  him,  God  separated  Adam  into  his  two  sexual  parts;  he 
took  one  of  Adam's  ribs  and  made  Eve  from  it. 

Philo,  a  Jewish  philosopher  contemporaneous  with  Jesus, 
said  that  Adam  was  a  double,  androgynous  or  hermaphrodite  be- 
ing "in  the  likeness  of  God."  Philo  said  that  "God  separated 
Adam  into  his  two  sexual  component  parts,  one  male,  the  other 
female— Eve— taken  from  his  side.  The  longing  for  reunion, 


140  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

which  love  inspired  in  the  divided  halves  of  the  originally  bi- 
sexual being,  is  the  source  of  the  sexual  pleasure,  which  is  the 
beginning  of  all  transgressions." 

Plato,  a  Greek  philosopher,  explained  the  amatory  instincts 
and  inclinations  of  men  and  women  by  the  assertion  that  human 
beings  were  at  first  androgynous ;  Zeus  separated  them  into  uni- 
sexual halves,  and  they  seek  to  become  reunited. 

The  Aryans  of  India  account  for  the  appearance  of  the  differ- 
ent animals  in  this  way:  "Purusha  was  alone  in  the  world.  He 
differentiated  himself  into  two  beings,  man  and  wife.  The  wife 
regarded  union  with  him  as  incest  and  fled,  assuming  the  shapes 
of  various  animals.  The  husband  pursued,  taking  the  same 
shapes,  and  thus  produced  the  various  species  of  animals." 

A  similar  story  was  told  in  Greece  of  Demeter  changing  her- 
self into  a  mare  to  escape  the  pursuit  of  Poseidon  (see  page  451). 

We  read  in  Genesis  (ii,  7),  "And  the  Lord  formed  man  of  the 
dust  of  the  ground  and  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life ; 
and  man  became  a  living  soul."  And  Job  said  (xxxiii,  4),  "The 
spirit  of  God  hath  made  me  and  the  breath  of  the  Almighty  hath 
given  me  life." 

The  "breath  of  God"  was  recognized  as  the  vivifying,  life- 
giving,  fertilizing  essence  of  the  Creator,  not  only  by  the  early 
Jewish  religion,  but  also  by  other  religions  of  antiquity. 

Many  ancient  authors  believed  in  the  "out-breathing"  (hali- 
tus)  of  the  male  being  the  fecundating  agent  that  produced  life. 
In  medieval  times  it  was  held  that  Mary  was  made  pregnant  by 
the  "word  of  God"  (a  very  slight  modification  of  the  "breath  of 
God")  because  the  Bible  tells  us  that  "the  word  became  flesh." 

Pythagoras  (500  B.C.)  taught  that  "seed  is  an  immaterial 
ether  or  vapor,  similar  to  thought,  produced  by  the  male."  And 
even  as  late  as  A.D.  1600,  Caesalpinus,  an  Italian  scientist,  referred 
to  a  "halitus"  or  breath  (an  immaterial  emanation,  exhalation  or 
vapor — practically  the  perfume)  from  the  male  plants  as  causing 
fertility  in  the  female  plants.  But  a  material  substance,  or 
"seed,"  was  substituted  for  the  "breath"  at  a  very  early  age. 

Anaxagoras  (a  Greek  philosopher,  about  475  B.C.)  taught  that 
the  embryo  was  formed  entirely  from  the  "seed"  of  the  father 
and  that  the  mother  merely  furnished  the  soil  in  which  it  grew 
and  developed.  But  this  theory  was  not  new.  Anaxagoras  merely 
gave  it  more  definite  expression,  and  made  it  generally  known  and 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  141 

popular  among  the  Greeks  and  the  successors  to  Greek  science. 
The  earliest  traces  of  this  theory  are  found  in  the  religious  writ- 
ings of  archaic  times.  For  more  than  a  thousand  years  the  sacred 
compositions  of  the  Hebrews  and  the  Hindus  (the  Old  Testament 
and  the  Rig-Vedas)  were  transmitted  orally  in  Southwestern  Asia, 
and  from  the  resulting  folklore  were  obtained  the  contents  of  the 
Bible  and  the  Rig-Vedas  when  these  "books"  were  reduced  to 
writings,  and  in  both  of  these  sacred  books  we  find  this  theory, 
which  was  taught  by  Aristotle  and  Diogenes  of  Apollonia,  but 
which  is  most  generally  ascribed  to  Anaxagoras,  plainly  stated. 

In  the  ancient  marriage  ceremony  of  the  Hindus,  when  the 
bride  enters  her  husband's  home,  those  present  say:  "As  a  fallow 
field  thy  wife  enters ;  sow  in  her,  0  man,  thy  seed ! ' ' 

And  in  the  Bible  we  read  (Gen.  xxxv,  11,  about  1732  B.C.), 
'  *  God  said  unto  Jacob,  Israel  shall  be  thy  name.  Kings 

shall  come  out  of  thy  loins"  ("loins"  in  this  connection  being  a 
euphemistic  translation  of  the  Hebrew  word  meaning  phallus  or 
genitals).  And  again  (Gen.  xlvi,  26,  about  1706  B.C.):  "All  the 
souls  that  came  with  Jacob  into  Egypt,  which  came  out  of  his 
loins  *  *  *  were  three  score  and  ten." 

It  is  a  peculiar  feature  of  modern  translations  of  the  Bible, 
that  the  translators  were  ashamed  of  the  plain  language  used  by 
God,  and  they  translated  such  words  as  penis,  etc.,  by  less  objec- 
tionable words.  If  the  Bible  is  really  the  "word  of  God"  it  should 
be  translated  correctly,  for  it  is  annoying,  to  say  the  least,  to  be 
interrupted  in  an  argument  based  on  the  English  version  of  the 
Bible,  to  be  met  with  the  statement,  that  so  and  so  is  not  a  correct 
translation,  but  is  something  different  in  the  original  Hebrew  text. 

This  passage  from  the  Bible  is  of  considerable  interest  in  con- 
nection with  the  theory  of  the  "preformationists,"  who  held  not 
only  that  the  fully  formed  although  microscopically  minute  or- 
ganism existed  preformed  in  the  seed  of  the  father,  but  that  it 
contained  or  included  in  itself  (like  a  nest  of  pill-boxes  one  within 
the  other)  all  subsequent  generations  of  germs  as  well. 

This  view  seems  to  be  implied  in  the  statement  just  quoted 
from  Genesis,  that  the  children  and  the  children's  children  "came 
out  of  the  loins"  of  Jacob.  Again  (about  1004  B.C.),  the  Lord 
said  unto  David:  "Nevertheless  thou  shalt  not  build  the  house 
(the  temple)  but  thy  son  that  shall  come  forth  out  of  thy  loins,  he 
shall  build  the  house  unto  my  name"  (I  Kings  viii,  19).  The  Bible 


142  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

therefore  teaches  this  theory.  As  late  as  A.D.  64,  this  theory  had 
Biblical  sanction,  for  St.  Paul  referred  to  a  time  before  Levi  was 
born  in  this  wise:  "For  he  ivas  yet  in  the  loins  of  his  father" 
Jacob  (Hebr.  vii,  10). 

It  is  of  great  interest  to  trace  the  gradual  development  of  a 
knowledge  of  sex;  we  will  give  some  older  views,  but  necessarily 
in  very  concise  form  only. 

Herakleitos  (550  B.C.)  said:  "Man  is  kindled  and  put  out  like 
a  light  in  the  night-time. "  "  The  wisest  man  is  an  ape  compared 
to  God,  just  as  the  most  beautiful  ape  is  ugly  compared  to  man." 

Anaximander  (about  600  B.C.)  said:  "Living  creatures  arose 
from  the  moist  element  as  it  was  evaporated  by  the  sun.  Man 
was  like  another  animal,  the  fish,  in  the  beginning."  Further,  he 
says  that  in  the  beginning  man  was  born  from  animals  of  a  dif- 
ferent species.  His  reason  is  that,  "while  other  animals  quickly 
find  food  for  themselves,  man  alone  requires  a  prolonged  period 
of  suckling.  Hence,  had  he  been  originally  such  as  he  is  now,  he 
could  never  have  survived.  *  *  *  The  first  living  creatures 
were  produced  in  the  moist  element  *  *  *  as  time  went  on  they 
came  out  upon  the  drier  part  *  *  *  and  changed  their  mode 
of  life." 

Parmenides  (about  500  B.C.)  :  "  *  *  *  The  narrower 
circles  are  filled  with  unmixed  fire,  and  those  surrounding  them 
with  night,  and  in  the  midst  of  these  rushes  their  portion  of  fire. 
In  the  midst  of  these  circles  is  the  divinity  (Necessity)  that  di- 
rects the  course  of  all  things ;  for  she  rules  over  all  painful  births 
and  all  begetting,  driving  the  female  to  the  embrace  of  the  male, 
and  the  male  to  that  of  the  female. 

"First  of  all  the  Gods  she  contrived  Eros. 

"  On  the  right,  boys ;  on  the  left  girls.    *     *     *" 

Empedokles  (about  475  B.C.):  "There  is  no  coming  into  be- 
ing of  aught  that  perishes,  nor  any  end  for  it  in  baneful  death; 
but  only  mingling  and  separation  of  what  has  been  mingled.  *  * 
But  when  the  elements  have  been  mingled  in  the  fashion  of  a  man, 
and  come  to  the  light  of  day,  or  in  the  fashion  of  the  race  of 
wild  beasts  or  plants  or  birds,  then  men  say  that  these  come  into 
being;  and  when  they  are  separated,  they  call  that,  as  is  the  cus- 
tom, woeful  death.  I  too  follow  the  custom,  and  call  it  so  my- 
self. Fools ! — for  they  have  no  far-reaching  thoughts— 
who  deem  that  what  before  was  not  comes  into  being,  or  that 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  ]43 

aught  can  perish  and  be  utterly  destroyed.  *    The  coming 

together  of  all  things  brings  one  generation  into  being  and  de- 
stroys it;  the  other  grows  up  and  is  scattered  as  things  become 
divided.  *  At  one  time  things  grew  together  to  be  one  only 

out  of  many,  at  another  time  they  parted  asunder  so  as  to  be  many 
instead  of  one.  Fire  and  water  and  earth  and  the  mighty  height 
of  air,  dead  strife,  too,  apart  from  these  and  balancing  every  one 
of  them  *  *  *  it  is  she  that  is  deemed  to  be  implanted  in  the 
frame  of  mortals.  They  call  her  by  the  name  of  Joy  and 

Aphrodite.  *  *  Behold  the  sun,  everywhere  bright  and  warm, 
and  all  the  immortal  things  that  are  bathed  in  its  heat  and  bright 
radiance.  Behold  the  rain,  everywhere  dark  and  cold;  and  from 
the  earth  issue  forth  things  close-pressed  and  solid.  When  they 
are  in  strife  all  these  are  different  in  form  and  separated;  but 
they  come  together  in  love  and  are  desired  by  one  another. 

"For  out  of  these  have  sprung  all  things  that  were  and  are 
and  shall  be — trees  and  men  and  women,  beasts  and  birds  and 
the  fishes  that  dwell  in  the  waters  for  these  things  are 

what  they  are ;  but  running  through  one  another  they  take  differ- 
ent shapes — so  much  does  mixture  change  them. 

"It  (Love)  made  many  heads  spring  up  without  necks,  and 
arms  wandered  bare  and  bereft  of  shoulders.  Eyes  strayed  up 
and  down  in  want  of  foreheads  *  this  marvelous  mass  of 

mortal  limbs.  At  one  time  all  the  limbs  that  are  the  body's  are 
brought  together  into  one  by  Love  and  again  they  are 

severed  by  cruel  strife. 

"But  as  divinity  was  mingled  still  further  with  divinity,  these 
things  joined  together  as  each  might  chance,  some  off- 

spring of  oxen  with  faces  of  men,  while  others,  again,  arose  as 
offspring  of  men  with  the  heads  of  oxen,  and  creatures  in  whom 
the  nature  of  women  and  men  was  mingled,  furnished  with  sterile 
parts. 

"Come  now,  hear  how  the  Fire  as  it  was  separated  caused  the 
night-born  ghosts  of  men  and  tearful  women  to  arise 
whole-natured  forms  first  arose  from  the  earth,  having  a  portion 
both  of  water  and  fire.     These  did  the  fire     *  cause  to 

grow,  showing  as  yet  neither  the  charming  form  of  women's 
limbs,  nor  yet  the  voice  and  parts  that  are  proper  to  man. 

"But  the  substance  of  the  child's  limbs  is  divided  between 
them,  part  of  it  in  men's  and  part  in  women's  (body). 


144  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

"And  upon  him  came  desire  as  he  mingled  with  her  through 
sight. 

"And  it  was  poured  out  in  the  pure  parts;  and  when  it  met 
with  cold,  women  arose  from  it. 

«  *    *    *    ^e  ^WQ  diverging  harbors  of  Aphrodite. 

"For  in  its  warmer  parts  the  womb  brings  forth  males,  and 
that  is  why  men  are  darker,  more  sinewy  and  more  hairy.  *  *  * ' ' 

This  gives  some  idea  of  the  theories  about  male  and  female 
in  early  days. 

Pythagoras,  500  B.C. — "Semen  is  an  immaterial  substance, 
like  thought,  produced  by  the  male." 

Anaxagoras,  500-426  B.C. — "The  embryo  is  from  the  male 
only;  a  drop  from  the  brain." 

Democritus,  470-369  B.C.  (?) — "Seed  is  produced  from  all 
parts  of  the  man's  body." 

Aristotle,  384-322  B.C. — "Seed  is  produced  only  by  the  male; 
it  causes  coagulation  of  the  menstrual  blood  and  this  coagulum 
forms  the  embryo;"  but  he  added  that  the  seed  of  the  male  de- 
termined the  form  of  the  embryo;  women  give  no  seed  and  their 
testicles  (ovaries)  are  superfluous  and  as  useless  as  the  breasts 
of  the  male. 

Diogenes  of  Appollonia  (about  350  B.C.) — "The  embryo  is 
formed  from  the  seed  of  the  male." 

Then  there  was  a  long  list  of  authors,  generally  referred  to  as 
"post-Pythagorean"  philosophers,  Thessalus,  Drakon,  Polybius, 
Dioxippus,  Diokles,  and  others,  who  believed  in  accord  with  many 
ancient  phallic  religions  that  the  male  "seeds"  were  formed  in 
the  right  testicle  (On)  and  the  female  "seeds"  were  formed  in 
the  left  testicle  (Hoa) ;  they  believed  the  sex  of  the  offspring 
could  be  controlled  by  tying  a  string  around  one  of  the  testicles 
during  coition.  A  string  tied  around  the  right  testicle  prevented 
the  male  seeds  from  escaping,  so  that  a  seed  from  the  left  tes- 
ticle would  produce  a  girl  child ;  and  vice  versa,  by  tying  a  string 
around  the  left  testicle  and  allowing  only  seed  from  the  right  tes- 
ticle to  be  emitted,  a  boy  must  necessarily  be  the  result.  Galen 
(130-200  A.D.)  also  taught  this  theory. 

Mohammed  considered  the  seed  to  be  merely  fluid;  in  the 
Koran,  Sura  xcvi,  he  said :  '  *  Read,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  who 
created  man  from  a  drop!" 

But  even  in  these  early  days  there  were  some  who  credited 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  145 

woman  with  an  important  share  in  the  function  of  creating  off- 
spring; thus  Alkmaeon  (502  B.C.)  said:  "Both  sexes  give  seed; 
the  one  who  gives  most  determines  the  sex  of  the  child." 

About  the  beginning  of  our  era  the  Essenes  were  a  secret 
Jewish  society  who  devoted  their  lives  to  speculations  on  reli- 
gious subjects;  they  lived  clean  lives  and  were  much  respected. 
Among  their  number  were  such  men  as  Philo,  John  the  Apostle, 
St.  Paul,  etc.;  it  was  in  these  times  that  the  Jews  (Essenes)  orig- 
inated (or  at  least  formulated)  the  Kabbalah  of  which  mention 
will  be  made  later  on.  The  Kabbalah  contains  a  mixture  of  Zo- 
roastrian,  Pythagorean,  Chaldean,  Persian  and  Jewish  vagaries, 
and  they  invented  the  speculations  about  "Logos,"  the  "Son  of 
God, ' '  the  * '  Mediator, ' '  etc. ;  they  placed  much  stress  on  the  sig- 
nificance of  words  and  letters  in  scripture,  according  to  the  the- 
ories of  those  initiated  in  gemetria.  By  the  end  of  the  I  Century 
after  Christ  the  Kabbalah  speculations  about  "Logos"  had  been 
firmly  established  and  accepted  by  the  early  Christian  writers. 
The  Kabbalah  considered  the  right  side  of  the  body  to  be  male 
and  the  left  side  to  be  female. 

Athenaeus  (68  A.D.)  believed  that  the  embryo  was  formed 
from  the  menstrual  blood,  to  which  the  male  seed  gave  definite 
shape  and  form.  The  female  testicles  (as  ovaries  were  then 
called)  were  useless;  they  were  mainly  intended  for  the  sake  of 
symmetry.  (See  Galen,  a  little  farther  on.) 

Soranus,  as  early  as  97  A.D.,  had  correctly  described  the  sex- 
ual parts  of  woman,  showing  that  he  had  dissected  them.  He 
denied  that  the  uterus  or  womb  contained  "cotyledons"  or  sep- 
arate compartments.  This  referred  to  a  theory  previously  held 
that  the  womb  was  made  of  two  lobes,  called  by  some  ancient 
writers,  "the  two  harbors  of  Venus,"  the  one  on  the  right  side 
being  warm,  so  that  seed  which  lodged  there  became  developed 
into  male  children,  while  the  one  on  the  loft  side  was  cold  and 
wet,  so  that  seed  finding  its  way  to  this  harbor  developed  female 
children.  Soranus  calls  the  ovaries  "female  testicles,"  but  he 
correctly  defined  their  relation  to  the  pelvic  bones;  he  correctly 
described  both  hymen  and  clitoris,  and  spoke  of  the  sympathy  be- 
tween the  uterus  and  the  mammary  glands. 

Moschion  (117  A.D.)  also  denied  the  theory  that  children  at- 
tached to  a  placenta  on  the  right  side  became  males,  while  those 
attached  on  the  left  side  became  females.  He  taught,  however, 


146  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

that  women  who  were  trained  as  professional  singers  did  not 
menstruate. 

We  will  have  to  refer  to  the  sexuality  of  the  two  sides  of 
the  body  again,  later  on. 

Apollonius,  an  Alexandrian  sophist,  about  96  A.D.,  was  much 
addicted  to  speculations  about  gemetria,  etc.;  he  taught  that  all 
who  want  to  become  godlike  in  knowledge,  and  in  the  healing  art, 
must  abstain  from  the  eating  of  meat  and  from  congress  with 
women. 

Galen  (131-203  A.D.)  believed  that  the  right  testicle  produces 
male  children  and  the  left  testicle  produces  female  children,  but 
he  believed  also  that  both  sexes  contributed  seed  towards  the  for- 
mation of  the  child;  he  objected  to  the  theory  of  Athenaeus  (see 
above)  that  form  was  not  always  due  to  the  father  but  that  some 
children  resembled  their  mothers  in  form  and  features  which 
proves  that  women's  semen  or  seed  also  had  an  influence  on  the 
form  of  the  embryo;  the  embryo,  he  said,  sucks  blood  and  spirit 
from  the  placenta;  from  the  blood  the  flesh  and  the  intestines 
were  formed,  and  from  blood  mixed  with  spirit  the  vessels  were 
produced.  The  brain  was  formed  from  a  portion  of  pure  seed. 

Galen  said  that  women  had  the  same  sexual  parts  as  men, 
only,  on  account  of  their  colder  (more  apathetic)  nature  they  are 
placed  within  her  body;  the  ovaries  are  testicles  and  furnish 
female  seed ;  he  said  that  there  are  as  many  cavities  in  the  uterus 
as  there  are  breasts.  (This  is  the  theory  of  uterine  cotyledons.) 

Averrhoes  (1120-1198  A.D.)  believed  the  female  testicles  to 
be  useless;  they  merely  secreted  moisture  (for  lubricating  the 
vagina  during  coition;  now  referred  to  by  some  as  "sympathy 
fluid") ;  the  embryo  is  formed  from  the  coagulated  menstrual 
blood;  the  form  is  due  to  the  masculine  seed;  the  seed  in  itself  is 
impotent  but  it  contains  a  spiritual  or  volatile  constituent  which 
causes  impregnation,  and  he  quotes  a  case  in  which  this  volatile 
substance  was  absorbed  by  a  woman  who  bathed  in  a  pool  in  which 
a  man  had  previously  bathed  and  had  had  an  emission  of  semen. 

Jacob  von  Forli,  professor  in  Padua,  about  1450  A.D.,  said 
that  the  embryo  in  the  first  month  of  pregnancy  was  under  the 
influence  of  Jupiter  ("pater,"  the  giver  of  life);  in  the  seventh 
month  under  the  influence  of  Luna,  who  is  favorable  because  she 
is  moist  and  reflects  the  light  of  the  sun;  in  the  eighth  month  it 
is  under  the  influence  of  Saturn,  who  kills  and  eats  children;  he 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  147 

is  the  enemy  of  life  and  kills  every  child  who  is  born  in  the 
eighth  month.  In  the  ninth  month,  again,  the  child  comes  under 
the  influence  of  Jupiter  who  grants  life  to  the  child. 

Agrippa  (1486  A.D.)  said  that  animals  could  be  reproduced 
without  seed  from  various  heterogeneous  materials.  He  was  a 
believer  in  the  mystical  and  supernatural  attributes  of  numbers 
(gemetria)  and  he  deduced  from  these  attributes,  for  instance, 
that  a  prayer  to  Mary,  " mother  of  God,"  on  a  first  of  April, 
at  8  o'clock  in  the  morning,  was  more  certain  to  be  heard  and 
granted  than  at  any  other  time. 

Cardanus  (1501-1576  A.D.)  said  beavers,  rabbits  and  gazelles 
were  produced  by  the  impurities  in  stagnant  water.  He  also 
thought  that  a  virgin's  breasts  would  give  milk  if  they  were 
whipped  with  nettles.  He  also  taught  of  the  relation  of  the  parts 
of  the  hand  (chiromancy)  to  the  character;  the  thumb  indicates 
strength,  bravery  and  voluptuousness,  and  is  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  planet  Mars;  the  index  finger  indicates  honors,  posi- 
tion and  rank  in  state  and  church  and  is  under  the  influence  of 
Jupiter;  the  middle  finger  is  under  the  influence  of  Saturn  and 
indicates  aptitude  for  magic,  for  work,  and  ability  to  bear  pov- 
erty and  sorrow;  the  ring  finger  is  sacred  to  the  sun,  and  friend- 
ship, honor,  might,  etc.,  can  be  judged  from  the  same;  the  little 
finger  is  under  the  dominion  of  Venus,  and  it  indicates  children, 
beautiful  women  and  voluptuousness ;  the  triangle  in  the  palm  of 
the  hand  is  under  the  influence  of  Mercury,  and  indicates  wis- 
dom, smartness,  acquisitiveness,  etc. 

Levinus  Lemnius  (1505  A.D.)  said  that  crows  conceive  through 
their  eyes,  that  sharks  give  birth  to  young  through  their  mouths, 
and  vermin,  such  as  roaches,  mice,  etc.,  originate  from  dirt  and 
rubbish. 

Ambrose  Pare  (1510  A.D.)  opposed  the  idea  that  witches  could 
have  connection  with  demons  or  devils,  as  the  latter  were  im- 
mortal and  immaterial  and  could  not  furnish  seed. 

Fallopius  (about  1523  A.D.)  first  recognized  the  similarity 
in  structure  and  in  formation,  as  erogenous  zone,  between  clitoris 
and  penis. 

Vesalius  about  the  same  time  taught  that  the  sexual  organs 
of  males  and  females  were  alike ;  only,  those  of  women  were  within 
the  body. 


148  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

John  Fernelius  (about  1558  A.D.)  called  the  ovaries  female 
testicles  and  believed  that  they  produced  seed. 

Eustachus  (about  1562  A.D.)  gave  the  first  correct  description 
of  the  uterus;  he  also  described  the  anatomy  of  the  mammary 
gland  (of  a  mare). 

Wyerus  (1515-1588  A.D.)  wrote  a  book  concerning  the  devil 
in  which  he  combated  the  theories  of  the  church  and  inquisition; 
he  asserted  that  the  tricks  of  the  magicians  were  due  to  sleight-of- 
hand  and  not  to  an  assistance  of  devils;  he  denied  the  existence 
of  were-wolves  and  the  possibility  of  sexual  union  of  devils  and 
women  witches,  etc. 

Ludwig  Settala  (about  1633  A.D.)  wrote  a  curious  work  on 
moles,  birthmarks,  etc. ;  he  said  that  a  mole  or  mark  on  the 
nose  was  accompanied  by  a  similar  one  on  the  penis;  one  in  the 
face  was  accompanied  by  a  similar  one  near  the  genitals,  etc. ; 
the  nearer  it  is  to  the  nose,  the  nearer  it  is  to  the  penis  or 
vulva,  etc. 

Paracelsus  (1492-1541  A.D.)  taught  that  if  menstruating  or 
pregnant  women  breathed  on  a  mirror  it  would  injure  the  health 
of  children  who  looked  in  the  mirror  afterwards;  he  said  that 
from  the  seed  of  a  man,  a  man  could  be  generated  by  placing 
the  semen  in  fermenting  horse-dung,  like  chicken  eggs  could  be 
hatched;  this  was  to  prove  that  the  woman's  part  in  generation 
was  merely  to  furnish  the  appropriate  soil  for  the  development 
of  the  male  seed  into  an  embryo. 

He  explained  that  the  seed  is  produced  by  all  parts  of  the 
body  and  reproduces  its  kind;  the  seed  from  the  nose  repro- 
duced the  nose,  from  the  eye,  the  eye,  etc. 

The  elements,  air,  earth,  fire  and  water  each  had  the  prop- 
erties of  being  hot,  dry,  cold  and  wet;  therefore  there  could  be 
dry  water,  cold  fire,  etc.;  which  was  proved  by  ice,  by  luminous 
or  phosphorescent  decaying  wood,  etc. 

He  believed  that  the  menstrual  blood  removed  poisonous  ma- 
terials from  the  system ;  therefore  it  could  not  be  the  cause  of  the 
embryo;  the  embryo  in  the  womb  got  its  nourishment  from  the 
milk  of  the  breasts,  which  flowed  down  to  the  womb. 

Gold  was  male ;  silver,  female ;  but  this  was  simply  in  accord 
with  general  alchemistic  ideas. 

Harvey  (1578-1658  A.D.)  taught  that  the  ovum  was  the  impor- 
tant germ-cell  and  that  it  contained  in  itself  the  preformed  ova 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  140 

for  the  next  generation,  which  in  turn  held  the  ovum  for  an- 
other; this  again  held  one  for  the  next  generation,  and  so  ad 
infinitum  (like  nested  pill-boxes) ;  it  was  calculated  that  Eve  at 
her  creation  held  200,000  millions  of  human  germs  within  her! 
The  advocates  of  this  theory  were  called  " praef ormationists. " 

It  is  curious  to  note  that  Harvey  arrived  at  this  conclusion 
by  pure  reasoning,  as  he  had  no  microscope  and  could  not  posi- 
tively know  that  the  woman  produced  eggs  or  ova. 

In  Cruden's  Concordance  of  the  Bible  (1737),  we  find  the  fol- 
lowing definition  of  seed:  "Seed — that  thin,  hot  and  spirituous 
humour  in  man's  body  which  is  fitted  by  nature  for  the  genera- 
tion of  mankind." 

This  may  refer  to  "man"  as  the  male,  or  it  may  refer  to 
"man"  as  the  species,  as  mankind;  it  does  not  therefore  specif- 
ically attribute  the  "seed"  to  the  male  sex  alone. 

The  "animalculists"  on  the  other  hand  asserted  that  the 
spermatozoon  is  the  essential  germ,  which  contained  the  human 
being  complete  in  all  its  parts,  only  exceedingly  minute,  and  which 
only  needed  to  be  deposited  in  a  woman's  body,  like  a  seed  in  soil, 
to  grow  into  a  child.  Von  Haller  taught  this  theory  as  late  as 
1677  A.D. 

Such  was  the  authority  of  the  Bible  that  this  view  persisted 
until  quite  modern  times.  Charles  Bonnet  taught  that  before  fe- 
cundation the  germ  is  preexistent,  and  that  it  contains  in  minia- 
ture all  the  organs  of  the  adult.  His  book,  Contemplation  de 
la  Nature,"  containing  these  teachings  was  published  in  1764- 
1765  A.D.  Bonnet  died  in  1793  A.D. 

Leeuwenhoek,  in  1677  A.D.,  made  known  his  discovery  of  the 
spermatozoa.  Dr.  Dalen  Patius  soon  afterwards  claimed  to  have 
seen  the  human  form  in  the  spermatozoon,  "the  two  naked  thighs, 
the  legs,  the  breast,  both  arms,  etc." 

In  France,  in  1694  A.D.,  Hartsoeckor  published  that  "each 
spermatozoon  conceals  beneath  its  tender  and  delicate  skin  a  com- 
plete male  or  female  animal.  The  egg  (of  the  woman)  is  merely 
the  source  of  nourishment  for  the  real  germ  contained  in  the  sper- 
matozoon. Each  one  of  the  male  animals  (spermatozoa)  encloses 
an  infinity  of  other  animals,  both  male  and  female,  which  are  cor- 
respondingly small,  and  those  male  animals  enclose  yet  other 
males  and  females  of  the  same  species,  and  so  forth  in  a  series 
which  are  to  be  produced  up  to  the  end  of  time."  And  the  sci- 


150  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

enlists  of  those  days  seriously  calculated  when  the  supply  of  germs 
which  Adam  had  deposited  in  Eve,  and  through  her  in  mankind, 
would  become  exhausted,  and  how  many  human  beings  were  pre- 
formed in  the  beginning  and  came  "from  the  loins"  of  Adam. 
Buffon,  the  celebrated  scientist,  and  the  friend  of  Bonnet,  held 
similar  views. 

So  it  appears  that  this  view  of  the  male  furnishing  the  "seed" 
was  predominant  from  about  1732  B.C.  to  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  or,  if  we  include  the  centuries  of  the  oral  trans- 
mission of  the  Bible,  for  about  4000  years. 

What  modern  science  says  about  this  subject  will  be  con- 
sidered presently. 

LIGHT  ON  A  DARK  SUBJECT 

"There  is  nothing  in  the  human  economy  of  which  men  and 
women  should  know  more  and  of  which  they  know  less  than  of 
the  sexual  relationship.  .  Ignorance  is  not  bliss ;  it  is  the  source 
of  unhappiness,  suffering,  crime,  vice  and  sorrow  without  end." 

The  light  of  knowledge  illuminating  this  subject  would  ele- 
vate the  prevalent  sensual  conceptions  of  the  relationship  of  the 
sexes  to  an  appreciation  of  the  real  holiness  and  purity  of  married 
companionship  and  would  check  immorality  and  prostitution. 

The  universal  song  of  love  is  a  harmonious  blending  of  friend- 
ship, esteem,  and  companionship  with  the  baser  animal  desires, 
sanctifying  the  latter  through  the  holiness  of  the  former.  This 
perfect  love  was  symbolized  by  the  Greeks  in  the  myth  of  Cupid 
and  Psyche;  Cupid,  the  god  of  Physical  Love,  and  Psyche,  the 
Soul,  the  Spiritual  Element  in  Love  (Fig.  41). 

Let  us  first  consider  the  physical  or  carnal  side  of  love. 

The  Female 

Between  the  thighs  of  the  woman,  chastely  hidden  by  the 
hair  of  the  mons  veneris,  unobtrusive  and  retiring  as  the  nature 
of  the  woman  herself,  lies  the  vulva — the  external  sexual  organ 
of  the  woman.  When  we  spread  the  lips  or  labia  apart  we  see 
in  the  upper  part  the  clitoris,  consisting  of  erectile  tissue  and 
constituting  a  so-called  "erogenous  zone;"  when  this  organ  is 
excited  by  friction,  or  by  playful  handling,  it  becomes  erect  and 
gives  rise  to  voluptuous  sensations.  Below  the  clitoris  is  the  open- 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  151 

ing  to  the  vagina,  into  which  the  man  introduces  his  erect  penis 
during  coition,  thus  bringing  his  pubic  hair  against  the  clitoris, 
to  increase  the  titillation  which  gives  the  pleasure  to  the  woman. 
These  parts  are  shown  in  the  drawing  (Fig.  42). 


Fig.  41. — "Cupid  and  Psyche,"  from  an  antique  statue. 


Fig.  42.-Drawing  of  a  vulva,  and  its          Fig.  43.-8ection  of  female  pelvi 
"    symbol,  the  doubly-pointed  ellipse.  sexual  organ   (uterus)   of  wo. 


152 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


This  diagrammatic  drawing  of  a  section  of  the  woman's  body 
shows  us  the  sexual  structures  of  the  human  female  (Fig.  43). 
Her  sexual  organs  lie  in  the  cavity  of  the  pelvis,  which  has  been 
called  the  '  *  cradle  of  the  human  race ; ' '  and  the  vulva  is  the  * '  door 
of  life,"  or  the  "door  to  the  womb;"  it  is  the  door  to  the  vagina, 
the  "vestibule"  or  "ante-chamber  of  life"  leading  to  the  womb. 

Here  (Fig.  44)  we  see  the  vagina  laid  open  and  the  uterus 
in  section;  attached  to  the  womb  we  see  the  Fallopian  tubes  and 
the  ovaries.  In  the  latter  an  ovum  is  elaborated  or  perfected  or 
matured  once  in  every  four  weeks,  or  in  a  lunar  month,  and  when 


Fig.  44. — Diagram  showing  vagina  laid  open,  uterus  and  Fallopian  tubes  in  section,  and 
ovaries,  from  an  old  work  on  "Artificial  Impregnation." 

it  is  freed  from  the  ovary,  the  ovum  is  caught  up  by  the  funnel- 
shaped  ends  of  a  Fallopian  tube  and  passed  down  to  the  interior 
of  the  uterus  or  womb. 

This  disengagement  of  an  ovum  is  accompanied  by  a  dis- 
charge of  blood  which  we  call  "menstruation"  or  "monthlies," 
or  in  Latin — "menses,"  and  the  physical  discomfort  due  to  the 
congestion  of  the  ovaries,  with  the  accompanying  disturbance  of 
the  nervous  system,  forms  the  physical  basis  of  "sexual  instinct" 
in  the  female.  During  this  process  the  female  is  said  to  be  "in 
heat,"  and  connection  with  the  male  about  this  time  is  particu- 
larly liable  to  be  followed  by  impregnation;  in  fact,  among  many 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


of  the  lower  animals  the  male  refuses  to  serve  the  female  at  all, 
if  she  is  not  in  heat  (Fig.  45). 

According  to  one  theory  of  the  predetermination  of  sex,  the 
fresher  the  ovum  is  at  the  time  of  impregnation,  the  more  likely 
is  it  to  lead  to  the  formation  of  a  girl  embryo;  and  as  it  gets 
older,  during  the  passage  through  the  Fallopian  tube,  the  more 
likely  is  it  to  produce  a  boy  baby.  Therefore  some  say  that  coi- 
tion just  before  the  monthlies  are  expected,  is  the  best  time  for 
coition  if  a  girl  baby  is  desired,  and  coition  a  day  or  two  after 
menstruation  is  preferable,  if  a  boy  baby  is  desired.  The  theory 
is  not  accepted  as  infallible,  however,  and  for  reasons  already 
explained,  no  theory  on  this  subject  is  absolutely  reliable. 


Fig.  45. — The  female  in  heat,  from  an  old 
work  on  "Artificial  Impregnation." 


Fig.  46. — Explaining  the  conse- 
quences, from  an  old  work  on  "Arti- 
ficial Impregnation." 


The  speculations  on  sex  determination  assumed  an  undue  im- 
portance in  recent  times,  because  the  Czar  and  other  rulers  were 
anxious  to  secure  male  heirs  for  their  dynasties. 

The  human  ovum  or  egg,  of  which  I  show  an  enlarged  draw- 
ing in  Fig.  47,  is  a  small  round  cell  about  V\ •_>.-.  inch  in  diameter, 
or  far  less  than  the  smallest  pin  head  in  size.  If  it  does  not  meet 
with  a  spermatozoon  in  the  ducts  or  in  the  uterus,  it  perishes  and 
is  discharged  from  the  womb.  But  if  it  meets  with  a  spermatozoon 
and  combines  with  it — and  this  can  be  but  with  one  spermatozoon 
of  all  the  many  millions  injected  by  a  vigorous  male  into  the  va- 
gina during  each  coition — the  ovum  absorbs  the  head  or  nucleus 
of  the  spermatozoon  or  male  cell  and  thereby  becomes  fertilized 


154 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


or  impregnated.  The  illustration  also  shows  the  relative  size  of 
the  ovum  and  the  spermatozoon. 

The  process  of  ovulation  begins  about  the  age  of  twelve 
or  fourteen  years  in  our  climate ;  this  is  called  the  age  of  puberty 
and  about  this  time  the  sexual  organs  mature,  the  hips  broaden 
and  the  pubic  hair  appears;  also,  the  breasts  become  enlarged 
and  assume  the  beautiful  shape  that  is  presented  in  a  beautiful 
woman. 

Ovulation  continues  for  about  thirty  years,  or  with  us  to 
about  the  age  of  forty-five  years,  after  which  the  woman  becomes 


Fig.  47. — Human  ovum  and 
spermatozoa.  Reproduced  from  an 
old  work. 


Fig.  48. — Section  of  pregnant  woman;  the 
ancient  Peruvians  placed  their  dead  in  the  po- 
sition of  a  foetus,  for  burial. 


a  neuter,  or  practically  sexless,  although  not  incapable  of  sexual 
intercourse  and  sensual  pleasure,  for  which,  in  fact,  a  liking  is 
sometimes  developed  after  the  cessation  of  menstruation.  This 
period  of  the  cessation  of  menstruation  is  called  the  "change  of 
life"  or  the  "menopause." 

If  impregnation  occurs,  the  ovum  becomes  attached  to  the 
interior  walls  of  the  uterus  and  develops  into  an  embryo  or  child. 
As  this  embryo  grows,  the  abdomen  of  the  woman  correspond- 
ingly enlarges  and  becomes  round  and  full  (Figs.  46  and  48) ;  the 
woman  is  ' '  pregnant "  or  "  with  child  "  or  ' '  enciente. ' '  Pregnancy 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


155 


lasts  about  nine  months  (or  as  the  ancients  stated  it,  ten  [lunar] 
months)  during  which  time  the  anabolic  sex-bias  of  the  woman 
enables  her  to  elaborate  nourishment  enough  for  both  herself  and 
the  growing  child  within  her,  until  "at  term,"  or  at  the  end  of 
the  nine  months  of  gestation,  the  child  is  expelled  by  the  contrac- 
tion of  the  womb  into  independent  existence. 

The  anabolic  surplus  of  the  female  mammal  is  now  directed 
to  her  breasts  and  milk  is  produced  (Fig.  51).  The  fulness  of 
the  mammary  glands  gives  rise  to  discomfort  which  is  relieved 
by  the  infant  sucking  the  milk  from  the  breasts.  The  nipple  is 


Fig.  49. — An  ape  mother  and  her  young. 


Fig.  50.— "Love's      Secret." 
mother  and  child. 


Statue     of 


an  erogenous  zone  having  a  structure  similar  to  the  cavernous 
portion  of  the  penis,  capable  of  giving  a  pleasure  similar  al- 
though weaker  than  that  experienced  by  the  clitoris  during  coi- 
tion; and  the  desire  to  obtain  relief  from  the  engorgement  of 
the  breasts  and  to  feel  the  pleasure  caused  by  the  erection  of  the 
nipple  by  the  sucking  of  the  infant,  is  the  physical  basis  of  "ma- 
ternal instinct." 

The  illustration  shows  the  structure  of  a  human  breast-gland ; 
the  lobules  of  cells  secrete  the  milk  which   is  collected  by  the 


156 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


lactiferous  ducts  which  anastomose  into  larger  and  more  dilat- 
able ducts,  which  converge  to  the  mamilla  or  nipple  where  the 
mouths  of  these  ducts  are  situated  and  from  which  the  child  can 
obtain  the  milk  by  sucking.  The  nipple  is  a  mildly  erogenous  zone, 
and  sucking  it  gives  a  pleasurable  sensation,  which  is  the  phys- 
ical basis  of  mother-love  (Fig.  51). 

There  is  a  general  belief  that  a  woman  will  not  conceive  while 
she  is  nursing  a  child;  therefore  this  process  is  continued  as  long 
as  possible  by  many  mothers. 

Probably  the  Papuan  women  have  a  similar  idea;  they  keep 
little  pigs  as  pets  which  the  women  suckle  at  their  breasts. 

The  first  articulate  sound  uttered  by  the  infant  of  any  na- 


Fig.  51. — Section  of  a  human  mammary  gland,  showing  the  lactiferous  ducts. 

tion,  by  the  child  of  any  human  mother,  is  the  syllable  "ma;"  it 
may  be  repeated,  thus  "ma,  ma;"  and  the  mother,  fondly  holding 
the  child  to  her  breasts,  fancies  that  the  child  is  trying  to  call  her 
name.  Hence,  in  nearly  all  languages  of  earth,  "ma"  or  "mama" 
means  "mother."  Perhaps  the  next  articulate  sound  will  be  "ba, 
ba,"  or  "pa,  pa,"  and  this  is  supposed  to  be  the  name  of  the  fa- 
ther; except  that  in  some  nations  the  word  "mama"  means  the 
father  and  the  word  "papa"  the  mother,  as  among  the  Maori  (see 
the  story  of  the  god  Eangi  and  his  wife  Papa,  on  page  4). 

The  most  important  part  of  the  mother  to  the  child  is  the 
source  of  its  nourishment — the  breasts.  These  are  called,  from 
the  word  "mama,"  the  mammary  glands,  and  animals  who  have 


SFA'    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  157 

such  milk-producing  glands  are  called  "mammalians"  or  "mam- 
mals." 

But  the  evolution  of  the  female  breast  or  of  the  mammary 
gland,  as  a  feature  of  the  female  animal,  dates  back  probably  not 
more  than  about  25,000,000  of  years,  though  some  scientists  claim 
it  to  be  not  much  over  3,000,000  of  years  old.  That  is,  the  age 
of  mammals  is  variously  estimated  to  have  begun  from  3,000,000 
to  25,000,000  years  ago. 

The  evolution  of  the  breast  was  a  momentous  event ;  it  marked 
a  new  epoch,  for  it  ushered  in  a  period  when  "mother  love,"  the 
care  and  education  of  the  offspring  by  the  mother,  became  a 
prominent  feature  of  life,  and  a  factor  in  the  development  of  in- 
tellectual traits. 

The  evolution  of  the  mammary  gland  was  a  great  aid  in  the 
mental  evolution  of  the  animal  and  humankind.  AVhen  the  off- 
spring is  able  to  shift  for  itself,  either  at  birth  or  very  soon  there- 
after, its  instincts  will  be  sufficient  for  its  requirements,  and  ad- 
vancement is  slow  and  uncertain. 

But  when  offspring  is  dependent  for  nourishment  and  care 
on  its  parents  for  a  long  time,  it  is  taught  many  things  that  are 
not  instinctive.  When  a  cat  plays  with  a  captured  mouse,  it  is 
not  necessarily  due  to  a  cruel  disposition;  if  the  cat  has  kittens 
she  does  this  to  teach  them  how  to  catch  their  own  prey,  mice, 
birds,  etc. 

The  human  infant  is  dependent  on  its  parents  longer  than 
any  young  of  any  species,  first,  by  nursing  at  its  mother's  breast 
for  a  year  or  more,  and  then  for  years,  until  at  least  the  age  of 
twelve  to  twenty  years,  for  clothing,  food  and  education;  the 
result  is  that  the  human  offspring  advances  much  farther  in 
things  that  are  learned  by  exercising  the  brain,  by  thinking,  and 
less  by  instinct,  than  any  other  organism,  with  the  result  that 
there  is  mental  and  intellectual  advancement  from  generation  to 
generation. 

The  Male 

Prominent  on  the  front  of  the  pubic  parts  of  the  man  are  his 
sexual  organs — bold,  self-assertive,  and  aggressive  as  is  the  man 
himself.  These  organs  are  the  penis,  also  called  "virile  organ" 
(from  the  Latin  words  vir,  a  man,  and  -virilis,  e,  virile,  manly), 
and  the  two  testicles,  the  latter  contained  in  a  pendulous  sac  called 


158 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


the  scrotum.  In  these  testicles  are  produced  the  male  cells  or 
the  spermatozoa.  Owing  to  their  prominence  and  sensitiveness 
these  organs  are  subject  to  injury;  in  fights,  they  offer  a  hold  to 
an  opponent  which  is  dangerous  to  the  one  whose  testicles  or 
scrotum  are  thus  seized ;  from  this  conies  the  expression, ' '  to  have 
a  man  by  the  nuts,"  which  means,  to  have  a  man  at  a  great  dis- 
advantage. These  organs  are  often  referred  to  as  "the  privates" 
or  "private  parts"  or  as  in  the  Bible,  the  "secrets;"  Deut.  xxv, 
11,  12.  "When  men  strive  together  one  with  another,  and  the 
wife  of  the  one  draweth  near  for  to  deliver  her  husband  out  of 
the  hand  of  him  that  smiteth  him,  and  putteth  forth  her  hand,  and 


Fig.  52. — A  spermatozoon,  enlarged.     Reproduction  from  an  old  print. 

taketh  him  by  the  secrets :  then  thou  shalt  cut  off  her  hand,  thine 
eye  shall  not  pity  her." 

In  ancient  Egypt  men  of  the  poorer  classes  wore  a  kilt  and 
girdle  only,  or  went  naked  when  at  manual  labor;  the  Jews  were 
slaves  in  Egypt,  and  therefore  poor,  and  they  probably  followed 
the  example  of  the  Egyptians  as  to  dress.  This  made  it  easy, 
and  almost  natural,  for  a  woman  coming  to  the  rescue  of  her  hus- 
band in  a  brawl,  to  put  her  husband's  enemy  to  the  greatest  dis- 
advantage she  could,  which  was  to  seize  him  by  his  most  sensitive 
and  vulnerable  parts;  but  we  see  from  the  above  quotation  that 
she  was  apt  to  suffer  much  for  such  loyalty  to  her  husband. 

We  more  commonly  call  the  testicles  "nuts"  or  "stones;" 
Moses  already  gave  them  the  latter  name  nearly  3500  years  ago; 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


159 


Deut.  xxiii,  1:  "He  that  is  wounded  in  the  stones,  or  hath  his 
privy  member  cut  off,  shall  not  enter  into  the  congregation  of 
the  Lord." 

The  spermatozoon  is  an  extremely  small  and  very  active  cell 
having  a  "head"  and  a  "tail,"  which  latter  moves  with  an  un- 
dulating motion  similar  to  that  of  a  tadpole,  propelling  the  sper- 
matozoon about  in  a  lively  manner;  many  thousands,  if  not  mil- 
lions, of  spermatozoa  wriggle  about  in  the  semen  introduced  at 
each  coition  into  the  vagina.  Here,  if  both  parties  to  the  sexual 
union  are  healthy,  they  meet  with  congenial  surroundings,  able 
to  maintain  life  and  good  health  for  several  days,  and  perhaps 


Fig.   53. — Structure  of  male  sexual 
organs;  penis  relaxed. 


Fig.  54 — Male  organ,  showing  erection. 
(Diagrammatic.) 


for  weeks,  so  that  it  is  doubtful  whether  in  a  young  married 
woman,  before  the  novelty  of  the  new  relationship  has  palled,  the 
vagina,  uterus  and  Fallopian  tubes  are  ever  entirely  free  from 
spermatozoa  capable  of  performing  their  function. 

In  Fig.  52  the  illustration  shows  the  shape  of  a  spermatozoon, 
of  course  much  enlarged;  the  corresponding  male  cells  in  plants 
are  the  antherozoids  of  cryptogams  and  the  pollen  cells  of  the 
higher  or  flowering  plants. 

After  the  spermatozoa  are  produced  in  the  testicles  they  pass 
to  the  seminal  vesicles  (small  reservoirs  behind  the  bladder) 
where  they  are  stored  up  for  future  use  (Fig.  53).  The  bladder 


160  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

is  emptied  through  a  tube  called  the  urethra;  the  ejaculatory  ducts 
are  passages  from  the  seminal  vesicles  to  the  membranous  portion 
of  the  urethra;  when  the  vesicles  become  filled  with  spermatozoa 
and  seminal  fluid,  this  fulness  causes  a  sense  of  discomfort  which 
prompts  to  the  taking  of  measures  for  evacuation,  and  this  sense 
of  discomfort  is  the  physical  basis  of  "sexual  instinct"  in  the 
male. 

The  head  and  skin  of  the  penis  are  the  erogenous  zone  in 
man ;  friction,  handling  or  irritation  of  any  kind,  may  produce  an 
erection  and  emission  which  is  accompanied  by  pleasant  sensa- 
tions, but  the  pleasantest  sensation  is  that  caused  by  the  slight 
friction  of  the  back  and  forward  movement  of  the  erect  penis  in 
the  vagina  during  coition. 

Erection  is  essential  to  coition;  it  is  due  to  the  filling  of  the 
interstices  in  the  cavernous  or  spongy  portion  of  the  penis  with 
blood,  under  the  influence  of  the  erectile  nerves  which  cause  the 
contraction  of  a  muscle  near  the  base  of  the  penis,  which  holds  the 
blood  in  the  penis,  causing  very  rigid  erection. 

You  probably  have  heard  the  medical  students'  story  of  the 
young  woman  student  in  the  class  (in  these  days  of  co-education) 
who,  when  she  was  asked  by  the  professor  of  surgery  how  she 
would  amputate  the  penis,  replied:  "I'd  make  a  circular  inci- 
sion through  the  soft  parts,  then  retract  the  soft  parts  and  saw 
through  the  bone."  "But,"  said  the  professor,  "there  is  no 
bone  in  the  penis."  "Oh,  yes,  there  is!  Every  one  I  ever  felt 
had  a  bone  in  it,"  replied  the  co-ed. 

If  the  exciting  cause  is  long  enough  continued,  as  in  coition, 
the  semen  passes  from  the  seminal  vesicles  through  the  ejacula- 
tory ducts  to  the  urethra  where  it  becomes  mixed  with  fluid  from 
the  prostatic  and  some  other  glands;  when  this  accumulation  of 
fluid  is  sufficiently  great  a  convulsive  excitation  expels  it  from 
the  urethra;  this  excitation  is  called  "orgasm."  The  pleasurable 
feeling  is  caused  by  the  passage  of  the  semen  through  the  ejacu- 
latory ducts  and  its  accumulation  in  the  posterior  part  of  the 
urethra;  it  increases  in  intensity  and  reaches  its  acme  at  emis- 
sion, after  which  it  quickly  subsides,  leaving  a  sense  of  comfort- 
able lassitude. 

If  this  emission  takes  place  during  union  in  the  usual  posi- 
tion of  coition,  the  woman  on  her  back  and  the  man  on  top,  the 
position  of  the  feminine  pelvis  is  somewhat  as  in  the  diagram 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


161 


(Fig.  55) ;  just  in  front  of  the  mouth  of  the  womb  is  a  small  cul- 
de-sac  of  the  vagina  and  the  penis  reaches  to  this  point  so  that 
the  semen  is  ejected  into  almost  immediate  contact  with  the  mouth 
of  the  womb;  the  pleasurable  excitement  of  the  clitoris  extends 
to  the  entire  nervous  complex  of  the  uterine  organs,  and  eventu- 
ates in  a  sort  of  spasmodic  insufflation  by  the  uterus,  by  which 
means  the  semen,  which  when  quite  fresh  is  more  or  less  viscid, 
somewhat  more  so  than  white  of  egg,  or  even  like  the  chalaziform 
appendage  to  the  yolk  of  the  egg,  is  sucked  up  into  the  uterus 
with  some  force  and  is  splashed  all  over  the  inner  surface  of  the 
womb  where  it  soon  liquefies,  after  which  the  spermatozoa  com- 
mence their  excursion  up  the  Fallopian  tubes,  by  wiggling  their 
vibratile  tails. 


Fig.  55. — Position  of  pelvic  organs,  woman  lying  clown  ;  shows  pocket  in  front  of  mouth 

of  uterus  for  semen  in  coition. 

This  insufflation  by  the  uterus  is  the  " orgasm"  in  woman, 
and  constitutes  the  moment  of  intensest  gratification  to  her  in  the 
sexual  congress  with  her  mate. 

Perfect  love  between  man  and  woman  depends  on  a  compati- 
bility of  bodily  pleasures  as  well  as  on  spiritual  love.  Both  must 
become  excited  in  coition  at  the  same  time;  "if  either  is  passive, 
with  the  genital  muscles  relaxed  and  the  spirit  cold,  he  or  she 
can  take  no  part  in  the  duet  of  love;"  the  duet  remains  a  solo, 
and  if  either  is  habitually  cold  and  unresponsive  the  symphony 
of  love  will  be  marred  by  the  jangling  and  jarring  sounds  and 
discords  of  ''sweet  bells  out  of  tune." 


162  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

Whether  coition  will  be  a  mutual  pleasure  or  a  one-sided  en- 
joyment only,  depends  on  the  man,  for  he  can  control,  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  at  least,  the  emission  of  the  semen ;  if  he  simply  thinks 
of  his  own  pleasure  and  lets  the  semen  go  before  he  feels  that  his 
mate  is  sufficiently  excited  for  an  orgasm,  the  woman  will  be  dis- 
appointed and  more  or  less  disgusted ;  but  if  he  rightly  times  the 
emission  the  woman  and  the  man  will  both  experience  the  pleas- 
ure which  is  referred  to  in  Prov.  v,  18,  19:  "Rejoice  with  the  wife 
of  thy  youth  be  thou  ravished  always  with  her  love." 

Virility,  or  the  power  to  impregnate  a  woman,  continues  in 
man  from  puberty  to  about  the  age  of  60  or  70  years,  but  in  most 
men  probably  longer,  as  far  as  spermatozoa  are  concerned,  pro- 
vided he  retains  the  vigor  to  have  an  erection  which  is  necessary 
to  bring  the  semen  to  the  mouth  of  the  uterus ;  if  a  man  loses  the 
ability  of  begetting  a  child,  it  is  more  frequently  from  inability 
to  have  erections  than  from  absence  of  spermatozoa,  although  the 
latter  condition  sometimes  occurs.  Such  a  condition  is  called 
"impotence"  or  "loss  of  virile  power;"  this,  however,  is  often 
more  imaginary  than  real,  as  a  result  of  being  frightened  by  the 
lying  advertisements  of  quacks,  who  live  on  the  credulity  of  the 
ignorant. 

One  of  the  most  common  symptoms  of  "loss  of  sexual  power" 
is,  according  to  these  advertisements,  that  one  testicle  (usually 
the  left)  hangs  lower  than  the  other.  The  frightened  reader  ex- 
amines himself  and  finds  that  this  dreadful  symptom  is  present 
with  him,  and  he  goes  to  the  quack  for  treatment,  which  usually 
"comes  high." 

In  reality,  it  is  a  wise  provision  of  nature  that  one  testicle 
should  hang  a  little  lower  than  the  other,  so  that  they  may  glide 
out  of  each  other's  way  when  otherwise  they  might  be  bruised 
during  jumping,  wrestling  or  physical  exertions  of  any  kind.  The 
important  bearing  which  this  relative  position  of  the  testicles  had 
on  religion  and  religious  symbolism  will  appear  later. 

Masturbation 

That  portion  of  the  nervous  system  which  presides  over  and 
controls  the  process  of  erection  is  called  the  "erection  center," 
probably  situated  in  the  sacral  plexus  of  nerves,  but  according  to 
some  authors,  in  the  brain,  or  in  the  pituitary  gland;  it  is  not 


SEX    AND    SKX    WORSHIP  ](\'.] 

directly  under  the  influence  of  the  will.  The  only  strictly  "in- 
stinctive" excitation  of  this  center  is  caused  by  a  fulness  of  the 
seminal  vesicles  and  auxiliary  glands,  which,  by  reflex  action, 
causes  erotic  ideas  and  desires  in  the  waking  condition,  or  "in- 
voluntary emissions"  during  sleep. 

If  awake,  this  fulness  suggests  to  the  male  to  seek  a  female 
companion  or  to  masturbate;  the  resulting  emission  relieves  the 
discomfort  caused  by  the  engorgement  of  the  seminal  vesicles. 

Probably  the  least  harmful  and  most  natural  way  to  get  re- 
lief is  by  masturbation. 

Fanatics  on  sex  relations  have  agitated  against  the  practice 
of  masturbation,  until  probably  every  youth  thinks  this  is  a  most 
heinous  sin.  I  have  seen  it  defined  in  some  tracts  as  the  "sin 
against  the  Holy  Ghost"  which  is  supposed  to  be  unforgivable. 
These  fanatical  writings  have  sent  many  people  to  insane  asy- 
lums; I  knew  of  one  young  man,  who  believed  that  masturbation 
was  a  wicked  sin,  and  I  have  seen  him  seize  a  knife  with  intent  to 
kill  himself  because  he  could  not  break  himself  of  the  habit;  he 
had  been  taught  that  to  find  relief  with  a  woman,  if  he  was  not 
married  to  her,  would  damn  him  forever.  He  finally  went  to  an 
insane  asylum,  where  he  was  when  I  last  heard  of  him,  a  hopeless 
lunatic. 

Now,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  there  is  nothing  said  in  the  Bible 
about  masturbation;  from  a  religious  standpoint,  therefore,  it  is 
no  sin. 

But  masturbation  is  called  by  misrepresenting  fanatics— 
"the  sin  of  Onan;"  hence  masturbation  is  also  called  "onanism." 

We  read  in  the  Bible,  Deut.  xxv,  5  to  9:  "If  brethren  dwell 
together,  and  one  of  them  die  and  have  no  child,  the  wife  of  the 
dead  shall  not  marry  without  unto  a  stranger:  her  husband's 
brother  shall  go  in  unto  her,  and  take  her  to  him  to  wife,  and  per- 
form the  duty  of  a  husband's  brother  unto  her. 

"And  it  shall  be,  that  the  first-born  which  she  beareth,  shall 
succeed  in  the  name  of  his  brother  which  is  dead,  that  his  name 
be  not  put  out  of  Israel. 

"And  if  the  man  like  not  to  take  his  brother's  wife,  then  let 
his  brother's  wife  go  up  to  the  gate  unto  the  elders,  and  say,  My 
husband's  brother  refuseth  to  raise  up  unto  his  brother  a  name 
in  Israel,  he  will  not  perform  the  duty  of  my  husband's  brother. 


164  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

"Then  the  elders  of  his  city  shall  call  him,  and  speak  unto 
him:  and  if  he  stand  to  it,  and  say,  I  like  not  to  take  her, 

"Then  shall  his  brother's  wife  come  unto  him  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  elders,  and  loose  his  shoe  from  off  his  foot,  and  spit 
in  his  face,  and  shall  answer  and  say,  So  shall  it  be  done  unto  that 
man  that  will  not  build  up  his  brother's  house. 

"And  his  name  shall  be  called  in  Israel,  The  house  of  him 
that  hath  his  shoe  loosed." 

The  Semitic  people,  to  which  the  Jews  belonged,  had  some 
peculiar  customs  in  ancient  times  in  regard  to  women  or  wives. 
A  wife  who  had  been  procured  by  purchase  by  her  husband,  or 
secured  from  her  father  by  a  contract  and  a  payment  of  any  kind, 
became  the  slave  of  her  husband  and  at  his  death  she  could  not 
marry  again  at  her  own  will,  as  she  was  part  of  her  husband's 
estate  or  property;  she  therefore  became  the  property  of  her  de- 
ceased husband's  next  of  kin,  who  inherited  the  estate.  While 
this  remained  the  custom  among  other  Semitic  tribes,  especially 
the  Arabians  until  the  time  of  Mohammed,  the  Jews  changed 
this;  but  they  retained  one  feature  of  this  custom,  namely,  that 
a  widow  left  childless  at  her  husband's  death,  was  entitled  to 
have  a  child  to  inherit  her  husband's  name  and  property;  she  had 
the  right  to  demand  from  her  husband's  brother  that  he  let  her 
have  enough  of  the  family  seed  to  raise  offspring  to  her  hus- 
band's memory,  as  just  related  in  the  passage  from  Deuteronomy.* 

In  some  Polynesian  islands  a  similar  custom  prevailed;  a 
widow  was  taken  by  the  brother  of  her  deceased  husband,  or  if 
there  was  no  brother,  some  other  relative  took  her,  but  not  to  se- 
cure an  heir  for  his  brother,  but  as  a  wife  for  himself. 

This  custom  was  also  prevalent  in  ancient  Sparta  and  Athens ; 
possibly  in  all  such  cases  there  was  an  underlying  memory  or  per- 
sistence of  polyandric  practices  in  primitive  ancestry. 

Now  we  also  read  in  the  Bible,  Gen.  xxxviii,  4  et  seq:  "And 
she  (Shuah,  the  wife  of  Judah)  conceived  again  and  bare  a  son; 
and  called  his  name  Onan. ' ' 

"And  Judah  took  a  wife  for  Er,  his  first-born,  whose 
name  was  Tamar. 

"And  Er,  Judah 's  firstborn,  was  wicked  in  the  sight  of  the 
Lord ;  and  the  Lord  slew  him. 

"An  interesting  story  in  this  connection  is  told  in  the  Bible  about  Ruth  and   Boaz. 


SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP  16;") 

"And  Judah  said  unto  Onan,  Go  in  unto  thy  brother's  wife, 
and  marry  her,  and  raise  up  seed  to  thy  brother. 

"And  Onan  knew  that  the  seed  should  not  be  his;  and  it  came 
to  pass,  when  he  went  in  unto  his  brother's  wife,  that  lie  spilled 
it  (the  seed)  on  the  ground,  lest  he  should  give  seed  to  his  brother. 

"And  the  thing  which  he  did  displeased  the  Lord,  and  he 
slew  him  also." 

We  see  from  this  that  the  sin  of  Onan  was  not  what  we  now 
call  "onanism,"  but  it  was  a  refusal  to  beget  a  child  with  his 
sister-in-laiv  in  memory  of  his  brother.  Onan  wras  willing  to  enjoy 
the  beauty  of  Tamar,  but  when  he  felt  the  sensual  gratification,  he 
withdrew  his  penis  and  allowed  the  semen  to  fall  on  the  ground, 
thus  refusing  her  her  share  of  the  pleasure  and  the  chance  to  con- 
ceive. The  story  of  Onan  has  no  reference  to  masturbation,  and 
I  know  of  no  passage  in  the  Bible  that  even  hints  that  this  prac- 
tice is  a  sin. 

It  is  a  bad  habit  and  a  man  would  do  well  to  avoid  it ;  but  it 
is  not  to  be  worried  over  if  he  can  not  refrain  from  it. 

To  apply  the  story  of  Onan  to  the  practice  of  masturbation  is 
about  as  appropriate  as  the  reproof  of  the  minister  who  overheard 
a  rather  profane  boy  telling  another  boy  to  "go  to  the  dovil!" 
Taking  the  boy  by  the  shoulder  and  looking  him  sternly  in  the 
eyes,  he  said  in  his  most  sanctimonious  and  impressive  manner: 
"My  boy,  do  you  not  remember  the  commandment,  'thou  shalt 
not  take  the  name  of  the  Lord,  thy  God,  in  vain.' 

When  we  consider  with  what  detail  the  Bible  regulates  such 
matters  as  menstruation,  or  with  what  women  a  man  may  indulge 
in  coition,  and  what  women  are  forbidden  to  him,  and  even  re- 
garding defecation  (see  Deut.  xxiii,  10-14),  it  seems  significant 
that  nothing  is  said  about  masturbation,  if  this  had  been  consid- 
ered a  reprehensible  practice  by  Moses;  perhaps,  as  tlio  Jews 
practiced  polygamy  and  could  have  concubines  besides,  mastur- 
bation was  not  as  common  a  practice  as  it  is  in  monogamous  com- 
munities; it  was  unnecessary  because  there  was  practically  no 
limit  to  feminine  conveniences  to  satisfy  the  sexual  desires. 

St.  Augustine  defined  a  sin  to  be  "any  thought,  word  or  dood 
against  the  law  of  God,"  so  that  in  the  absence  of  such  a  law, 
masturbation  can  not  be  a  sin.  If  we  eliminate  the  superstitious 
dread  of  sin,  then  masturbation  is  the  most  rational,  the  most  ef- 
fective and  the  least  harmful  mode  of  gratifying  sexual  instinct, 


166  SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

except  coition  with  a  wife.  Misrepresenting  masturbation  to  be 
a  heinous  sin,  and  as  very  destructive  to  the  nervous  organiza- 
tion leads  multitudes  of  young  men  to  go  to  houses  of  prostitution, 
because  coition  is  commonly  regarded  as  less  objectionable  than 
masturbation. 

But  coition  with  a  prostitute  involves  risks  to  reputation,  to 
social  standing  and  to  health,  that  makes  this  indulgence  much 
more  dangerous  than  masturbation,  so  that  many  young  men  are 
afraid  to  go  to  a  whore,  and  so  they  seduce  innocent  girls,  to 
avoid  any  risks  to  themselves ;  or  some  young  men  go  insane  over 
their  inability  to  abstain  from  masturbation.  Warnings  against 
masturbating  may  be  well  meant,  but  the  pictured  evils  are  vastly 
exaggerated,  and  the  consequent  harm  done  to  young  men  and 
to  girls  is  infinitely  greater  than  any  possible  harm  from  indul- 
gence in  the  habit. 

Masturbation  may  occasionally  do  harm  to  a  weak-minded 
subject,  but  the  idiocy  or  nervous  affections,  "loss  of  manhood," 
etc.,  are  less  frequently  the  result  of  excessive  masturbation  than 
excessive  masturbation  is  the  result  of  idiocy;  idiocy  is  not  the 
result  but  the  cause  of  masturbation. 

Sexual  Instinct 

It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  for  an  understanding  of  sexual 
practices  and  sexual  vices  and  perversions,  that  we  should  have 
a  full  understanding  of  "sexual  instinct,"  and  "sexual  passion." 

Science,  in  the  number  for  November,  1892,  said:  "All  the 
voluntary  activities  of  men  and  animals  are  reflex  or  intelligent, 
the  one  set  originating  in  sensation,  the  other  in  perception. 

"Instincts  are  not  activities,  but  impulses  to  activity.  They 
are  due  to  the  sensation  being  transmitted  from  their  several  lo- 
cal seats  to  the  brain,  where  they  present  themselves  as  cravings, 
desires,  appetites,  imperatively  calling  for  relief.  They  prompt 
to  both  kinds  of  activities,  those  which  can  be  performed  by  reflex 
action,  and  those  which  require  the  adoption  of  intelligent  means. 
Voiding  of  the  feces  and  urine  is  a  type  of  the  former,  the  pro- 
viding of  food  of  the  latter.  The  more  important  instincts  are 
the  craving  for  food,  the  sexual  instinct  and  the  maternal  instinct. 

"Instinct  impels  to  action  but  does  not  guide  to  its  perform- 
ance." 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


1G7 


Let  me  repeat  and  emphasize  this  last  sentence,  as  it  states 
the  nature  of  sexual  instinct  in  unmistakable  terms : 

"Instinct  impels  to  action  but  does  not  guide  to  its  perform- 
ance." 

"If  reflex  action  will  appease  it  the  animal  has  but  to  will; 
if  intelligent  measures  are  required  it  is  the  function  of  the  intel- 
lect to  adopt  them. 

''The  most  important  instincts  originate  in  the  local  action  of 
proper  secretions,  as  the  contents  of  the  stomach,  or  bladder,  the 
gastric  juice,  the  spermatorrhoeal  or  lacteal  secretions,  etc.  In- 


Fig.    56 — "Daphnis   and    Chloe, "    from      Fig.  57. — Papuan  women  in  their  host  at- 
.a   painting   of   an    ancient   Persian    love  tire— just  a  string  about  the  neck, 

story. 

stinct  is  not  a  lower  order  of  intelligence,  nor  a  substitute  for  it. 
It  is  an  impulse  or  spur,  and  may  be  called  the  school-master  or 
wet-nurse  of  the  intellect." 

One  of  the  oldest  and  sweetest  of  love-stories  is  the  old  Per- 
sian tale  of  Daphnis  and  Chloe,  now  better  known  as  "Paul  and 
Virginia"  (Fig.  f)f>).  This  story  tolls  of  a  youth  and  a  maiden 
who  grew  up  in  idyllic  simplicity  and  with  no  thought  of  carnal 
desire.  In  the  most  ancient  times,  as  evidenced  by  this  story,  it 


168  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

was  already  recognized  that  the  sexual  impulse  or  instinct  did  not 
teach  the  method  of  gratification  known  as  coition,  and  that  this 
had  to  be  learnt  from  teaching  by  others. 

Instinct  is  not  as  powerful  in  man  as  in  other  animals  be- 
cause there  is  not  the  same  necessity  for  it,  and  in  the  clothed 
nations  there  is  but  little  suggestion  on  which  instinct  could  act, 
so  that,  even  if  at  one  time  coition  was  suggested  by  instinct,  the 
disuse  of  such  a  faculty  for  untold  generations  must  have  made 
it  inoperative  among  clothed  nations.* 

In  the  unclothed  savage  nations  the  conditions  are  different, 
but  even  there,  as  we  are  told  in  the  descriptions  of  these  peoples, 
coition  and  the  knowledge  of  sexual  relationship  are  the  result  of 
teaching  by  others.  In  many  savage  nations,  at  the  age  of  pu- 
berty, the  boys  are  sent  apart  from  the  tribe  for  a  time,  during 
which  they  are  instructed  by  priests  or  elder  men.  When  they 
return  to  the  tribe  they  are  "men'.'  or  "warriors ;"  in  other  words, 
they  know  "the  ways  of  men  with  a  maiden."  In  some  of  the 
Polynesian  tribes  the  boys  are  tattooed  during  this  time ;  they  are 
considered  to  be  minor  children  until  after  they  have  been  tattooed. 

In  some  tribes,  as  for  instance  in  Arabia,  boys  go  naked  until 
they  are  near  the  age  of  puberty,  while  the  girls  are  put  into  their 
first  clothing  when  they  are  about  six  or  seven  years  of  age. 

When  the  first  menstrual  flow  is  noticed  in  a  girl,  some  tribes, 
as  for  instance,  the  Sawaioris  (Polynesian),  make  this  the  occa- 
sion of  a  sort  of  family  festival  for  the  women,  and  the  nature  of 
this  flow  is  explained  to  the  girl;  in  ancient  Greece  and  Kome  a 
girl  at  this  period  of  her  life  was  taken  by  the  priestesses  to  the 
temples  of  Priapus,  whose  images  were  represented  with  rigid, 
erect  penises  (whence  the  term  "priapism),  and  the  girl  was 
instructed  in  the  uses  of  the  organ  of  Priapus,  or  even  allowed  or 
compelled  to  have  connection  with  the  god,  after  which  she  was  no 
longer  a  girl  but  a  woman. 

With  us,  as  a  general  rule,  no  information  on  this  subject  is 
given  to  young  people ;  they  are  left  to  gather  what  they  may  from 
evil  companions,  or  from  obscene  pictures  or  erotic  literature,  of 
which  there  is  no  lack  among  the  boys.  Sexual  instinct  exerts  but 
a  small  influence  on  our  lives,  and  many  persons,  especially  among 
the  more  guardedly  reared  girls,  grow  to  maturity  without  any 

*A   quaint   story  based  on   this   idea,   is   "The  Harvester,"   by   Gene    Stratton-Porter. 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  ]  01) 

knowledge  of  the  sexual  relationship,  and  are  even  married  with- 
out any  anticipation  of  what  the  experiences  of  the  bridal  night 
will  reveal  to  them. 

Hence  there  is  often  great  curiosity  engendered,  which  is  not 
always  contributive  to  best  morality.  Some  young  ladies  were 
talking  about  marriage,  and  wondering  why  their  married  friends 
affected  such  an  air  of  superior  knowledge  and  experience;  and 
they  agreed  that  the  first  of  them  to  be  married  should  tell  her 
experience  to  the  others. 

Soon  afterwards  one  of  them  became  engaged,  and  in  due  time 
married;  and  she  kept  her  promise  by  writing  to  her  friends: 
1  'Bead  Job  xli,  16-17  and  Job  xl,  16-17."* 

If  instinct  was  sufficient  to  suggest  coition  everyone  should 
know  about  this.  To  what  extent  habits  ordinarily  supposed  to 
be  strictly  "instinctive"  are  really  due  to  teaching  is  illustrated 
by  the  advice  of  Mr.  J.  F.  Ferris,  in  his  work  on  artificial  hatch- 
ing of  poultry,  that '  *  if  the  chicks  do  not  readily  eat  when  twenty- 
four  hours  old,  one  or  two  chickens  somewhat  older  should  be 
placed  with  them  to  teach  them  to  eat."  Of  course,  when  hatched 
by  a  hen,  the  hen  teaches  them  this. 

Ignorance  of  coition  in  grown  men  must  necessarily  be  rare; 
yet  I  had  experience  in  a  case  where  a  man  had  been  married  for 
over  five  years,  and  although  he  prayed  every  night  that  God 
might  bless  their  home  with  a  child,  no  baby  arrived;  finally  his 
wife  prevailed  on  him  to  consult  a  physician,  having  first  given 
me  an  insight  into  the  true  condition  of  affairs.  When  he  came,  a 
little  questioning  proved  that  his  wife  was  still  a  virgin;  he  had 
never  seen  a  woman  naked  and  did  not  know  the  significance  of 
the  anatomical  difference  between  himself  and  his  wife  and  did 
not  dream  of  any  other  way  of  getting  babies  than  that  God  would 
send  them,  possibly  by  storks  or  angels!  (Fig.  58).  I  took  him 
with  me  to  the  dissecting  room  and  explained  to  him  the  anatomy 
and  physiology  of  the  parts,  and  the  modus  opcrandi,  and  im- 
pressed on  him  that,  in  this  matter  at  least,  God  helps  those  who 
help  themselves. 

After  several  weeks  he  came  back  and  said  that  he  had  not 
succeeded  in  coition,  as  every  time  when  he  had  an  erection,  by 

•Job  xli,  16-17:  "One  is  so  near  to  another  that  no  air  can  come  between  them.  They  are 
joined  one  to  another,  they  stick  together,  they  can  not  be  sundered." 

Job  xl,  16-17:     "Lo  now,  his  strength  is  in  bis  loins,  and  his  force  is  in  the  navel  of  his  belly. 
He  moveth  his  tail  like  a  cedar;  the  sinews  of  his  stones  are  wrapped  together." 


170 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


the  time  he  and  his  wife  had  removed  their  clothing  to  a  sufficient 
extent,  his  erection  was  gone.  I  advised  him  to  take  all  the  clothes 
off  his  wife  and  himself  when  they  went  to  bed,  let  the  light  burn 
dimly,  and  to  kiss  his  wife  from  head  to  foot ;  to  do  this  every  eve- 
ning for  a  month,  but  not  to  attempt  coition  until  after  a  month, 
so  as  not  to  risk  humiliating  his  wife  by  a  possible  failure;  and 
I  advised  him  to  read  the  fourth  chapter  of  the  Song  of  Solomon, 
or  better,  to  memorize  it  and  repeat  it  inwardly  as  he  kissed  his 
wife.  Whether  he  did  as  I  advised,  I  do  not  know,  but  there  were 
several  children. 

The  point  I  wish  to  make  is  this :  That  if  a  knowledge  of  sex- 


Fig.  58.— "To  Its  Earthly  Home,"  from 
a  painting  by  Kaulbach. 


Fig.  59. — A  childbirth,  allegorically  rep- 
resented in  the  Kurfuersten  Bibel,  1768* 


ual  union  is  not  a  matter  of  instinct,  then  unnatural  and  unusual 
practices  are  still  less  likely  to  originate  spontaneously  in  this 
way,  and  especially  not  in  the  minds  of  the  comparatively  passive 
girls,  and  perverted  practices  (such  as  the  Bible  refers  to  in  Rom. 
i,  26,  27:  "For  even  their  women  did  change  the  natural  use  into 
that  which  is  against  nature.  And  likewise  also  the  men,  leaving 
the  natural  use  of  the  woman,  burned  in  their  lust  one  toward 

*"And  there  appeared  a  great  wonder  in  heaven;  a  woman  clothed  with  the  sun,  and  the 
moon  under  her  feet,  and  upon  her  head  a  crown  of  twelve  stars:  and  she,  being  with  child,  cried, 
travailing  in  birth  and  pained  to  be  delivered."  Rev.  xii,  1  and  2. 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  171 

another;  men  with  men  working  that  which  is  unseemly)"  are 
not  to  be  explained  or  palliated  by  references  to  "perverted  in- 
stincts." The  "instincts"  are  not  perverted,  even  when  the  prac- 
tices are  so.  All  sexual  perversions  are  the  results  of  perverted 
teachings;  they  are  not  the  results  of  instinctive  suggestions  and 
can  not  be  excused  as  insanities.  Some  that  are  insane  may  bo 
addicted  to  sexual  perversions,  but  the  practices  are  not  proof  of 
insanity,  for  they  are  indulged  in  all  over  the  world  as  the  re- 
sults of  suggestions  and  teachings.  But  we  can  not  enter  into 
further  details,  as  it  is  not  the  plan  of  this  book  to  treat  of  sexual 
perversions. 

Sexual  instinct  is  essentially  of  the  same  nature  as  the  desire 
to  urinate  or  defecate,  being  a  sense  of  discomfort  from  distended 
seminal  vesicles  in  the  male  or  of  congested  or  engorged  ovaries 
in  the  female,  just  as  the  other  impulses  are  caused  by  a  full  rec- 
tum or  bladder. 

In  men  this  discomfort  is  relieved  spontaneously  by  involun- 
tary emissions,  and  in  women  by  the  menstrual  flow,  these  being 
the  primary,  normal,  natural,  and  instinctive  methods  of  appeas- 
ing the  sexual  instinct. 

All  methods  of  relieving  the  distention  of  the  seminal  vesicles 
except  involuntary  emissions  are  unnatural  in  the  sense  that  they 
are  not  instinctive,  but  the  results  of  volition.  Strictly  speaking, 
a  method  like  masturbation  which  can  be  practiced  by  one  indi- 
vidual alone,  is  more  natural  than  a  method  like  coition  that  de- 
mands the  co-operation  of  another  individual  who  may  perhaps 
at  the  time  be  indifferent  or  even  averse  to  the  copulation. 

Every  voluntary  act  to  satisfy  the  sexual  instinct  or  passion 
is  an  intellectual  act,  and  it  is  sane  if  it  accomplishes  the  result 
suggested  by  the  sexual  instinct — an  emission  of  the  semen;  all 
the  arts  of  the  debauche  that  achieve  this  result  are  rational  and 
sane.  The  man  who  uses  a  woman,  the  masturbator  who  uses  his 
hand,  the  Turk  who  uses  his  eunuch,  the  pederast  who  uses  a  boy 
or  man,  the  Arab  who  uses  his  mare,  the  cowboy  who  uses  a 
heifer,  and  the  libertine  who  pays  a  girl  to  suck  his  penis,  all  are 
equally  sane,  because  the  method  in  each  case  adopted  depends 
upon  the  customs  of  the  country,  the  opportunities  presented,  and 
the  moral  and  ethical  character  of  the  man. 

The  accumulation  of  semen  in  the  seminal  vesicles,  with  its 
attendant  discomfort,  is  the  physical  basis  of  sexual  instinct ;  but 


172  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

any  irritation  in  the  pelvic  region  may  be  mistaken  for  fulness  of 
the  vesicles  and  may  be  considered  to  be  sexual  instinct,  so  that 
in  many  cases  when  a  man  congratulates  himself  on  his  powerful 
virility  he  may  be  merely  constipated,  or  he  wants  to  urinate,  or 
has  prostatic  trouble. 

The  early  church  fathers  considered  coition  to  be  a  sin  and 
a  fall  from  grace,  and  they  taught  that  the  unmarried  would  at- 
tain to  greater  glories  in  heaven,  some  of  them  saying  that  those 
of  either  sex  who  had  indulged  in  coition,  even  though  in  wedlock, 
could  not  enter  into  heaven  at  all.  This  led  to  the  establishment 
of  religious  celibate  orders;  to  triumph  over  one's  sexual  desires 
was  the  greatest  merit  to  be  achieved,  and  some  church  fathers 
and  female  saints  went  so  far,  to  gain  complete  triumph,  that  they 
had  beautiful  companions  of  the  opposite  sex  live  with  them  and 
even  sleep  with  them  because  continence  under  such  circumstances 
was  supposed  to  deserve  greater  reward  hereafter  than  if  it  had 
been  maintained  under  less  tempting  conditions. 

The  argument  that  coition  was  necessary  to  perpetuate  the 
race  was  met  with  the  theory  that  if  Adam  had  not  yielded  to  his 
passion  for  Eve,  he  would  have  effectually  rebuked  God  and  com- 
pelled him  to  invent  some  harmless  mode  of  reproduction  that 
would  have  dispensed  with  the  co-operation  of  the  sexes,  and  thus 
the  world  would  have  been  peopled  by  innocent  and  passionless 
beings ;  such  was  the  doctrine  taught  by  Justin,  Gregory  of  Nyssa, 
Augustine,  and  other  church-fathers. 

Such  views  are  not  extinct!  I  remember  reading  in  the  ex- 
planations of  a  catechism  that  it  is  a  sin  to  bathe  all  over,  because 
the  sight  of  one's  naked  body  gives  rise  to  lascivious  thoughts! 
There  are  some  persons  who  are  very  easily  affected  to  erotic 
thoughts ! 

I  passed  one  day  in  front  of  a  theater  when  the  audience  was 
just  being  dismissed;  when  the  doors  were  thrown  open  pass- 
ersby  could  get  a  glimpse  of  the  stage.  With  me  was  a  very  exem- 
plary gentleman — a  minister.  When  he  saw  this  last  scene  of  a 
Christmas  pantomime  fairy  transformation  scene  (how  we  would 
enjoy  seeing  one  again!),  he  said  to  me,  " Isn't  that  awful!" 
"What  is  awful!"  said  I.  "Why,  the  way  those  girls  show  their 
legs ! "  I  told  him  that  I  had  taken  my  wife  and  children  to  that 
performance  the  previous  evening  and  we  had  found  it  very  beau- 
tiful, and  that  I  had  promised  the  children  to  take  them  again. 


SEX    AND    SEX   WORSHIP  173 

"How  can  you  do  such  a  tiling!  Why,  I  had  an  involuntary  omis- 
sion from  the  sight!  It's  scandalous!"  and  ho  advised  me  to 
pray  to  God  to  let  me  have  concupiscent  thoughts  so  that  I  too 
might  appreciate  the  immorality  of  such  shows.  I  advised  him 
to  pray  to  God  to  clean  Ms  mind  of  such  ideas,  so  that  he  could 
appreciate  the  beauty,  purity,  and  wholesomeness  of  the  human 
body.  No  clean-minded  man,  woman  or  child  should  have  lascivi- 
ous thoughts  on  account  of  a  fairy  scene  like  that! 

But  is  it  likely  that  women  who  have  been  brought  up  under 
such  influence  and  under  such  religious  teachings  will  make  their 
husbands  happy? 

Let  me  quote  a  few  sentences  from  an  essay  on  Social  Purity 
by  Lucinda  B.  Chandler,  a  would-be  social  "reformer;"  here  is 
what  she  thought  of  marriage : 

"When  a  \voman  has  made  this  agreement  *  *  she  has 
made  herself  permanently  a  legal  prostitute  till  death 

or  divorce  dissolves  the  contract. — I  demand  the  immediate  and 
unconditional  ABOLITION  of  this  vilest  system  that  ever  cursed 
the  earth.  Marriage  is  legalized  prostitution.  The  term 

marriage  is  more  offensive  than  the  terms  rape,  murder,  or  pros- 
titution, because  it  involves  all  of  them,  and  all  combined  are 
worse  than  either  alone.  *  *  *  The  wife  is  the  most  degraded 
of  all  prostitutes  *  *  *  a  forced  prostitute.  Popular 

prostitution,  bad  as  it  is,  is  not  as  bad  as  the  forced  prostitution 
of  marriage." 

Excessive  coition,  in  marriage  or  out  of  marriage,  may  of 
course  be  injurious,  especially  to  the  delicate  nervous  system  of 
a  woman,  but  it  is  not  likely  to  be  exacted  from  a  wife  who  allows 
her  husband  a  rational  enjoyment  of  her  charms  in  other  ways. 
There  can  be  no  suggestion  of  prostitution  in  wedlock  when  sexual 
pleasure  is  mutual,  and  it  is  only  the  most  extreme  and  rabid 
W-C-T-U-ism  that  can  speak  of  the  wifely  relationship  as  a  con- 
dition of  legalized  prostitution.  Marriage,  as  an  institution,  is 
one  of  the  most  sacred  and  chastest  relationships  on  earth. 

The  old  feudal  method  of  valuing  a  wife  as  one  might  a  brood- 
mare, according  to  the  number  of  her  offspring,  is  still  upheld  by 
orthodox  ecclesiasticism,  as  shown  in  the  opposition  to  "birth 
control;"  it  is  cruelly  exhaustive  to  the  wife  and  equally  injurious 
to  the  quality  of  the  offspring,  for  large  families,  especially  among 
the  poor,  are  the  source  of  pauperism,  ignorance,  vice,  crime  and 


174  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

disease.  It  must  come  to  be  understood  that  large  families  are 
as  much  an  evidence  of  intemperance  and  even  more  reprehen- 
sible than  drunkenness  and  other  excesses,  but  it  does  not  follow 
that  there  may  be  no  sensual  pleasures  in  wedlock,  but  rather, 
that  if  caution  is  not  sufficient  to  prevent  impregnation,  that  some 
of  the  Malthusian  restraints  on  conception  should  be  practiced, 
as  being  both  more  moral  and  more  humane  to  the  wife  than  too 
frequent  and  exhausting  pregnancies. 

To  have  recourse  to  abortion  is  to  commit  murder — it  should 
not  be  thought  of ! 

Temperance  in  coition  is  desirable  for  many  reasons,  but  it 
is  attainable  only  when  the  esthetical  enjoyment  of  a  wife's  beauty 
is  such  a  matter-of-course  affair,  that  it  ceases  to  have  an  eroti- 
cally  inflaming  effect ;  for  when  a  wife  entertains  the  too  prevalent 
notions  in  regard  to  nudity,  such  temperance  is  difficult  to  at- 
tain, for  the  less  frequently  the  beauty  of  the  wife's  body  is  seen 
the  more  erotically  excitable  and  desirous  is  the  nature  of  the  man. 

It  may  be  asked,  how  often  may  conjugal  coition  be  practiced? 
This  will  depend  on  the  mutual  desires  and  consent  of  husband 
and  wife,  and  with  us  is  a  private  concern,  but  it  has  been  the  sub- 
ject of  legislation.  In  Athens  Solon  decreed  that  a  man  must 
render  this  conjugal  duty  to  the  wife  three  times  a  month ;  and  in 
Mohammedan  lands  the  Koran  directs  the  husband  to  gratify  his 
wife  at  least  once  a  week  on  pain  of  her  having  the  right  to  de- 
mand divorce  if  he  fails  in  this  duty. 

The  Bible  does  not  state  how  often  coition  is  to  be  exercised, 
but  implies  that  it  should  not  be  long  between-times ;  ''Let  the 
husband  render  unto  the  wife  due  benevolence:  and  likewise  also 
the  wife  unto  the  husband.  The  wife  hath  not  power  of  her  own 
body,  but  the  husband:  and  likewise  also  the  husband  hath  not 
power  of  his  own  body  but  the  wife.  Defraud  ye  not  one  another, 
except  it  be  with  consent  for  a  time,  that  ye  may  give  yourselves 
to  fasting  and  prayer ;  and  come  together  again,  that  Satan  tempt 
ye  not  for  your  incontinency "  (I  Cor.  vii,  3). 

This  puts  it  plainly  on  the  basis  of  each  mate  trying  to  sat- 
isfy the  desire  of  the  other,  and  it  is  "benevolence"  to  grant  the 
pleasure. 

In  Arragonia,  a  part  of  what  is  now  Spain,  at  one  time  and 
at  the  instance  of  the  queen  a  law  was  passed  that  no  husband 


SEX    AXI)    SKX    WORSHIP  17.") 

should  have  the  right  to  demand  coition  from  his  wife  of toner 
than  six  times  in  any  one  day ! 

Leaving  out  of  consideration  the  extreme  views  of  six  times 
a  day,  and  the  other  extreme  view  of  Zenobia,  Queen  of  Palmyra 
(about  275  A.D.),  that  once  in  two  or  three  years  for  the  sake  of 
begetting  offspring  was  enough,  the  best  rule  is  probably  some- 
where between  Martin  Luther's  view — twice  in  one  week — and 
that  of  some  modern  writers — once  in  two  weeks;  the  best  inter- 
val depends  on  the  vigor  and  health  of  the  man  and  woman  con- 
cerned, and — apart  from  that — on  the  pleasure  and  desire  of  the 
wife ! 

In  summer,  no  doubt,  coition  is  more  enervating  than  in  win- 
ter, which  was  already  recognized  by  the  ancients  who  believed 
that  coition  was  injurious  in  all  months  whose  names  contain  no 
"R,"  so  that  their  coition  season  corresponded  with  our  oyster 
season. 

Sexual  Passion 

As  erotic  ideas  are  instinctively  caused  by  a  stimulus  coming 
from  the  erection  center,  so,  obversely,  this  center  may  be  irritated 
by  erotic  ideas  produced  in  the  brain;  what  we  see  or  hear  may 
cause  us  to  have  erotic  desires,  and  this,  reacting  on  the  erection 
center  may  cause  erections;  lascivious  thoughts,  dreams,  stories, 
pictures,  etc.,  may  have  this  effect. 

The  disposition  to  become  thus  excited  by  mental  impressions 
is  under  the  control  of  the  will  to  a  great  extent ;  we  may  encourage 
it  and  become  libertines,  or  we  may  discourage  it  and  remain 
continent  men.  This  disposition  is  therefore  not  instinctive,  but 
is  a  cultivated  habit  which  constitutes  "sexual  passion." 

I  show  here  a  diagram  (Fig.  60)  to  make  clear  the  difference 
between  sexual  instinct  and  sexual  passion.  Instinct  originates 
in  the  seminal  vesicles;  the  impulse  is  transmitted  to  the  erection 
centers  in  the  sacral  plexus  of  nerves  and  the  similar  center  in 
the  brain,  and  then  by  reflex  action  to  the  penis,  causing  sexual 
desire  and  erection.  Passion  originates  in  the  brain;  the  impulse 
is  transmitted  to  the  penis  and  the  erection  center  in  the  sa- 
cral plexus,  causing  erection.  How  sexual  passion  operates  is 
shown  in  the  Bible  (II  Sam.  xi,  2  et  seq.) :  "And  it  came  to  pass 
in  an  evening  tide,  that  David  arose  from  off  his  bed,  and  walked 
upon  the  roof  of  the  king's  house:  and  from  the  roof  he  saw  a 


176 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


woman  washing  herself;  and  the  woman  was  very  beautiful  to 
look  upon.  And  David  sent  messengers  and  took  her; 

and  she  came  in  unto  him  and  he  lay  with  her. ' ' 

Sexual  passion  is  therefore  a  result  of  intellectual  disposi- 
tion, or  a  cultivated  habit,  wThich  in  some  is  allowed  to  grow,  so 
that  it  practically  controls  the  disposition  of  the  man  until  he 
lets  his  mind  dwell  on  erotic  desires  all  the  time.  Even  uninten- 
tional suggestions  of  nudity  of  a  woman  often  have  erotic  effects 
on  some  minds,  as  when  a  society  reporter  said  of  a  lady  at  a  ball, 
that  "she  was  magnificently  attired  in  a  diamond  necklace;"  or, 
as  occurred  quite  recently  in  a  theatrical  announcement,  which 


'Result. 


INSTINCT. 


PASSION. 


_  J 


Fig.  GO. — The  origin  of  sexual  instinct  is  in  the  seminal  vesicles;  of  lust  or  passion  in 

the  brain. 

stated  that  a  well-known  actress  would  appear  at  a  certain  theater 
in  "A  Pair  of  Silk  Stockings." 

Ninety-nine  times  out  of  a  hundred,  our  acts  to  secure  sexual 
pleasure  are  not  in  obedience  to  sexual  instincts,  but  to  secure 
the  sensual  pleasure  that  experience  has  taught  us  may  be  ob- 
tained thereby ;  in  other  words,  instinct  is  replaced  by  a  cultivated 
habit  or  passion,  and  the  methods  chosen  are  equally  deliberately 
acquired  and  practiced.  Passion  is  most  frequently  stimulated  by 
"memory  pictures,"  that  is,  by  creations  of  an  erotic  fancy  run- 
ning riot  in  lustful  reveries  or  dreams. 

In  many  animals  the  liberation  of  sex-elements  is  passive  and 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  177 

not  accompanied  by  pleasure;  it  is  strictly  of  the  same  nature  as 
defecation  or  urinating,  and  it  concerns  the  individual  alone.  Fer- 
tilization is  a  random  matter  and  although  sex  exists,  sex  attrac- 
tion and  sexual  passion  do  not.  A  female  fish,  for  example,  lays 
her  eggs  in  the  shallow  waters  near  the  shore  and  a  male  deposits 
his  semen  in  the  same  waters,  and  the  accidents  of  wind  and  wave 
determine  whether  an  egg  is  fertilized  or  not. 

A  grade  higher,  true  sexual  union  appears,  but  between  any 
male  and  any  available  female;  there  may  be  pleasure  in  the  act, 
but  not  enough  to  favor  the  establishment  of  passion ;  there  is  no 
pairing,  no  love  in  the  higher  sense;  union  is  promiscuous,  as 
among  cattle,  horses,  dogs,  poultry,  etc. 

As  wre  ascend  in  the  scale  of  intelligence  we  find  that  the  psy- 
chic elements  in  love  gain  in  importance.  While  the  appreciation 
of  beauty  may  be  an  element  in  the  pairing  of  even  lower  animals, 
such  beauty  alone  does  not  seem  to  excite  erotic  desires  in  an- 
imals ;  it  may  decide  the  mating,  but  coition  is  still  only  in  obedi- 
ence to  some  other  stimulus,  especially  the  rutting  odor.  Passion 
due  to  centric  memory  pictures  is  essentially  a  human  trait,  al- 
though animals  trained  for  stud  purposes  sometimes  acquire  an 
unnatural  concupiscence. 

Rutting  Odor 

In  animals  the  female  exhales  a  peculiar  odor  when  she  is 
physiologically  ready  for  copulation  with  the  male.  This  odor  is 
called  the  "rutting  odor,"  and  in  most  animals  the  male  does  not 
become  sexually  excited  unless  this  odor  is  present. 

No  doubt  everyone  is  familiar  with  the  behavior  of  dogs  when 
there  is  a  bitch  in  heat  about;  or  they  have  seen  the  facial  contor- 
tions of  a  bull  when  he  smells  the  sexual  organs  of  a  cow  to  as- 
certain whether  she  is  in  heat. 

But  even  in  quite  low  animals,  as  in  butterflies  and  moths,  the 
female  has  this  kind  of  attractive  odor  and  entomologists  some- 
times place  female  moths  in  small  cages,  so  as  to  attract  the  male 
moths  so  they  can  catch  them  with  their  nets. 

There  is  a  similar  odor  in  the  human  female  about  the  time 
of  menstruation,  but  in  mankind,  at  least  in  civilized  communities, 
this  odor  has  lost  its  importance  because  man  has  to  a  great  ex- 
tent lost  his  sense  of  smell. 


178  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

The  influence  of  the  rutting  odor  in  a  mare  had  a  great  in- 
fluence on  the  history  of  the  world.  When  Cyrus  died  he  left  no 
son  to  inherit  his  kingdom,  and  the  chiefs  agreed  among  them- 
selves that  they  would  ride  out  to  a  certain  hill  to  greet  the  rising 
sun  (recognized  as  a  deity  among  the  Persians),  and  the  one 
whose  horse  would  neigh  first  in  greeting  to  the  sun  should  become 
king.  The  stable  master  of  Darius  heard  of  this  agreement,  and 
the  evening  before  the  chiefs  were  to  ride  out  to  the  appointed 
place  he  took  his  master 's  stallion,  which  Darius  always  rode,  and 
led  him  to  a  mare  in  heat  which  he  had  previously  taken  to  the 
place;  there  the  stallion  was  allowed  to  serve  the  mare  at  his 
pleasure  (Fig.  61). 

Next  morning,  when  the  chiefs  rode  out  to  the  hill,  the  stal- 


Fig.  61. — "Darius  Becomes  King,"  from  Welt-Gemaelde  Gallerie,  XVIII  Century. 

lion  recognized  the  place  and  remembered  the  delights  of  the  pre- 
vious evening  and  neighed  loudly  as  a  call  to  the  mare,  which, 
however,  was  no  longer  there.  But  the  other  chiefs,  as  soon  as 
Darius'  horse  greeted  the  rising  sun  by  neighing,  dismounted 
from  their  own  horses,  and  made  their  obeisances  to  him  and  ac- 
claimed him  their  king.  The  story  adds  that  soon  thereafter  a 
thunder  storm  arose,  and  this  was  considered  as  an  omen  that  God 
approved  their  choice ;  and  perhaps  it  was  a  fair  choice  as  Darius 
was  the  husband  of  a  daughter  of  Cyrus. 

While  the  rutting  odor  is  no  longer  of  sexually  excitant  value 
to  the  clothed  nations,  it  is  possible  that  it  retains  some  amount 
of  attractiveness  in  unclothed  nations,  but  as  coition,  even  among 
the  lowest  people,  is  now  a  matter  of  cultivated  habit  and  not  of 
instinct,  the  odor  of  the  female  body  is  not  of  great  importance 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  1  7<) 

as  the  excitant  feature.  Nevertheless,  the  odors  of  human  be- 
ings are  also  of  importance,  for  although  men  may  not  always  be 
consciously  aware  of  such  an  influence,  yet  the  perfume  of  the 
woman  is  one  of  the  many  subtle  influences  which  attract  the  at- 
tention and  perhaps  arouse  the  affections  of  the  man  for  a  par- 
ticular woman. 

There  is  a  theory  that  each  human  being  is  surrounded  by 
an  aura  or  thin  cloud  of  personal  emanations,  which  either  at- 
tracts or  repels,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  animals  perceive  this 
even  more  quickly  and  certainly  than  do  men  and  women,  who  are 
not  so  dependent  now  upon  the  sense  of  smell  as  are  primitive 
people. 

Humboldt  in  his  Kosmos  tells  of  a  tribe  of  South  American 
Indians,  who  could  track  their  game  by  the  sense  of  smell,  as  our 
hunting  dogs  do. 

In  the  middle  ages,  and  even  in  some  cases  to  this  day,  phy- 
sicians diagnosed  the  sickness  of  their  patients  by  the  sick-bed 
odors;  even  now,  I  believe,  anyone  who  ever  treated  a  case  of 
smallpox  or  meningitis  would  be  able  to  diagnose  another  case  by 
its  odor. 

The  former  importance  of  the  sense  of  smell  in  mankind  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  about  one-half  of  humankind  still  greet 
each  other  by  rubbing  noses  together,  which  caress  is  known  as 
the  " salute  by  smelling."  It  is  also  indicated  by  the  frequent 
references  to  the  body  odors  which  occur  in  the  writings  of  the 
ancients,  as  for  instance,  in  the  Bible.  It  is  therefore  no  more 
than  natural  that  we  should  consider  this  sense  in  connection 
with  sex. 

SOCIAL  RELATIONS  OF  MEN  AND  WOMEN 

It  is  sometimes  stated  that  the  institution  of  marriage,  the 
relationship  of  husband  and  wife,  is  the  original  form  of  sexual 
relationship,  introduced  by  God  when  he  created  Adam,  and  then 
cre'ated  a  helpmate  for  him. 

But  in  reality  married  relationship  is  a  rather  late  institu- 
tion, introduced  when  man  had  advanced  far  enough  to  appreciate 
the  crudeness  and  coarseness  of  his  evolutionary  inheritance  in 
this  regard. 

We  have  already  learned  that  mankind  was  the  product  of 


180  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

evolution  from  mammals,  and  not  from  the  higher  apes,  but  as 
a  collateral  branch  to  these.  Like  our  domestic  animals,  cattle, 
horses,  goats,  sheep,  dogs,  etc.,  who  resulted  by  evolution  from 
the  same  sources  from  which  man  sprang,  when  this  evolution 
was  taking  place  in  regard  to  man's  body,  he  inherited  with  his 
physical  characteristics  also  many  of  the  mental  traits  of  his  pre- 
human ancestors.  It  is  a  characteristic  of  most  herbivorous  mam- 
mals that  they  do  not  pair,  as  many  birds  and  many  carnivorous 
animals  do,  but  that  they  live  in  a  promiscuous  relationship  of  the 
sexes,  or  that  they  go  in  droves  or  flocks  of  many  females  attached 
to  one  male.  These  two  methods  of  sexual  relationships  were 
probably  the  primitive  methods  of  men  and  women  living  together. 

Whenever  civilized  travelers  have  visited  savage  nations  for 
the  first  time,  they  found  in  most  cases  the  tribal  organization  not 
based  on  marriage,  but  that  the  men  and  women  of  the  tribe  lived 
together  in  promiscuous  relationship  which  seemed  to  be  subject 
to  no  regulation,  but  only  to  the  immediate  and  temporary  inclina- 
tion of  the  individual  man  and  woman.  In  other  words,  the  family 
as  it  exists  in  civilized  communities,  was  unknown  in  most  of  the 
lower  nations ;  and  presumably  also  in  primitive  conditions  of  the 
higher  nations. 

In  such  unregulated  relationship  it  is  of  course  impossible  to 
determine  the  paternal  ancestry,  and  only  the  relation  of  the 
mother  to  the  child  is  known.  Under  such  conditions,  it  was  im- 
possible even  for  a  woman  to  know  with  any  degree  of  certainty 
who  was  the  father. 

This  led  to  tribal  or  horde  organization,  in  which  relationship 
and  inheritance  was  traced  through  the  mother  only,  and  some 
authors  think  that,  by  analogy,  the  earliest  deities  were  supposed 
to  be  living  together  in  similar  manner  and  that  this  led  to  an 
exaltation  of  the  mother  over  the  unknown  father,  and  that  the 
first  ideas  of  deities  were  of  feminine  deities;  that  motherhood 
was  deified. 

This  is  probably  true,  and  family-relationship  of  gods  and 
goddesses,  and  of  men  and  women,  was  not  known  to  primitive 
tribes  who  lived  by  hunting  and  fishing,  and  who  had  no  permanent 
homes.  In  such  people  women  and  children  belonged  to  the  tribe ; 
they  were  community  property. 

Herodotus  tells  us  of  a  Scythian  people  who  held  their  women 
as  common  property,  "that  they  might  all  be  brothers." 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP  181 

Suidas  relates  that  the  women  in  Attica  abandoned  them- 
selves to  unchecked  vice,  and  no  man  knew  his  father. 

An  ancient  Hindu  work  says,  that  Svetaketu  instituted  mar- 
riage, and  that  "before  his  time  women  were  unconfmed  and 
roamed  at  their  pleasure." 

The  Chinese  also  believe  that  marriage  was  introduced  by 
teaching.  Fo-hi,  a  semi-mythical  king  of  China,  supposed  to  have 
been  born  of  a  virgin,  put  an  end  to  promiscuous  relations  by 
introducing  social  order,  marriage,  writing  and  music.  Other  na- 
tions had  similar  traditions  about  the  introduction  of  married 
relationship. 

Aristotle  and  other  ancient  writers  reported  similar  condi- 
tions elsewhere ;  and  such  customs  exist  in  many  places  to  this  day. 

In  many  Polynesian  islands  promiscuous  intercourse  between 
the  sexes  prevailed  until  the  natives  were  converted  by  the  mis- 
sionaries; or  they  prevail  to  this  day  where  they  have  not  been 
converted.  In  fact,  the  effort  to  limit  a  man  to  one  woman  has 
been  one  of  the  greatest  obstacles  to  the  influence  of  the  mission- 
aries in  some  of  these  islands. 

In  some  of  the  islands  female  virtue  was  highly  prized  and 
Samoa  was  pre-eminent  in  this  respect.  A  woman  when  about  to 
be  married  had  to  undergo  a  special  ordeal  to  prove  her  virginity, 
and  a  proof  of  her  immorality  disgraced  all  her  relatives. 

In  other  islands  great  laxity  of  morals  was  the  rule.  In  Ha- 
waii brothers  with  their  wives,  and  sisters  with  their  husbands, 
possessed  each  other  in  common ;  and  in  some  of  the  islands,  es- 
pecially among  the  chiefs,  brothers  and  sisters  intermarried. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  some  quite  low  tribes,  morality  was 
high.  In  the  Andaman  Islands  the  people  go  absolutely  naked, 
except  that  women  in  quite  recent  times  have  commenced  to  wear 
aprons  of  grass  behind;  yet  a  fairly  strict  monogamy  is  the  rule, 
and  transgressions  are  the  exception.  They  name  their  children 
before  birth ;  all  names  are  therefore  of  common  gender,  and  there 
are  only  about  20  names,  but  the  different  names  are  usually 
qualified  by  adjectives. 

In  Burmah  monogamy  is  the  rule,  but  husbands  can  rent  or 
lease  their  wives  to  strangers  for  a  stated  period ;  this  is  not  con- 
sidered degrading  to  the  woman,  who  is  generally  true  to  her  tem- 
porary husband  or  master. 

In  East.  India,  in  early  times,  the  Aryan  housewife  shared 


182  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

with  the  husband  the  joys  and  the  trials,  as  well  as  the  privileges 
of  worshipping  the  gods;  she  even  took  part  in  composing  the 
hymns  to  the  gods,  and  some  of  the  finest  of  these  were  composed 
by  prophetesses. 

The  Mam-Mam  tribe  in  Africa,  who  are  cannibals,  have  a 
genuine  affection  for  their  wives,  such  as  does  not  exist  in  any 
other  African  tribe;  if  a  man's  wife  is  captured  or  stolen,  those 
who  hold  her  can  get  almost  anything  from  the  husband,  such  as 
ivory,  etc.,  in  exchange  for  her  liberty. 

In  ancient  Germany  a  youth  married  the  girl  of  his  choice. 
The  husband  presented  the  wife  with  arms  which  she  could  use  in 
emergencies.  They  were  monogamous,  except  that  the  princes  or 
chiefs  sometimes  married  the  daughters  of  several  chiefs  for  po- 
litical reasons.  This  continued  far  into  civilized  times,  in  fact,  to 
the  days  of  Luther.  About  750  A.D.  the  Germans  were  very  cor- 
rupt, and  the  sanctity  of  marriage  was  almost  disregarded.  About 
this  time  the  Saxons  were  still  Pagans  and  offered  human  sac- 
rifices to  their  gods.  They  also  married  their  sisters. 

Among  the  Sawaioris  women  occupied  a  high  position  and 
could  even  hold  hereditary  offices  or  positions  in  the  tribe. 

The  Eskimos  are  very  filthy;  owing  to  the  intense  cold  in 
winter,  washing  is  out  of  the  question.  Mothers  sometimes  wash 
their  children  by  licking  them  off  with  their  tongues,  like  cows  do 
their  calves;  they  are  monogamous,  a  man  having  but  one  wife; 
but  the  women  especially  are  very  low  in  their  estimate  of  chastity, 
and  their  husbands  and  relatives  practically  ignore  any  moral 
lapses  on  the  part  of  the  wives. 

In  parts  of  Alaska,  among  the  Aleuts,  the  women  go  to  meet 
incoming  ships,  and  earn  money  by  associating  with  the  sailors; 
this  is  considered  by  the  husbands  to  be  a  perfectly  proper  and 
commendable  way  to  contribute  to  the  household  maintenance. 

A  curious  story  is  .told  of  the  Lacedemonians  who  in  a  war 
(3209  B.C.)  had  sworn  not  to  return  to  their  native  land  until  they 
had  taken  Messina;  this  took  longer  than  they  had  anticipated, 
and  at  the  end  of  ten  years  they  were  still  at  war.  Their  wives 
then  sent  them  word  to  return  home  and  beget  children  with  their 
wives  and  the  daughters  who  had  meanwhile  grown  up.  So  the 
Lacedemonians  sent  a  picked  number  of  robust  warriors  to  im- 
pregnate all  the  women  at  home;  as  many  of  these  were  young 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  183 

women,  or  virgins,  all  the  children  born  of  this  visit  of  the  dele- 
gation were  called  parthenios,  or  virgin-children. 

In  later  days  the  Greeks  frequently  invited  especially  beau- 
tiful young  men  to  cohabit  with  their  wives  and  daughters  so  as 
to  have  the  latter  bear  beautiful  children;  this  was  considered 
eminently  proper  and  did  not  injure  the  reputations  of  the  women 
to  any  degree  whatever. 

"When  Cook  and  his  crew  visited  the  Hawaiian  islands 
for  the  first  time,  they  found  promiscuous  intercourse  the  rule; 
they  joined  in,  but  as  some  of  the  sailors  had  syphilis  this  disease 


Fig.  62. — "The  Family/'  the  unit   and   foundation  of  civili/od  society. 

soon  became  general,  and  this  was  the  cause  of  a  great  deteriora- 
tion in  the  native  stock. 

Efforts  have  been  frequently  made,  even  in  highly  civilized 
lands,  to  reintroduce  this  promiscuous  relationship,  but  while  it 
exists  sub  rosa  in  all  lands,  it  has  not  met  with  official  recognition. 

During  the  French  Revolution  efforts  were  made  to  take  the 
ownership  of  all  women  and  girls  from  the  king  and  from  those  to 
whom  he  had  leased  his  rights  in  them,  and  to  vest  it  in  the  state. 
The  state  was  to  lease  the  women  to  the  men,  for  breeding  pur- 
poses, and  to  be  their  maids  (the  ideas  of  canonical  law  being 
accepted). 


184  SEX   AND   SEX   WOKSHIP 

Fournier,  a  French  socialist,  proposed  to  reorganize  society; 
he  believed  that  the  institution  of  marriage  imposes  unnatural 
restraints  on  human  nature,  which  results  in  vice  and  misery,  and 
that  the  full  and  free  development  of  human  nature,  and  the  only 
way  to  happiness  and  virtue,  depends  on  the  unrestrained  indul- 
gence of  human  passion.  He  proposed  that  those  who  desired  to 
cohabit  should  take  out  licenses,  good  for  a  certain  limited  time, 
which  would  permit  them  to  do  so. 

Such  a  system,  under  religious  sanction,  actually  exists  in 
modern  Persia,  where  temporary  marriages  for  a  few  hours  or 
for  a  few  days  only,  can  be  arranged  for  by  the  mollah  (Moham- 
medan priest)  who  receives  a  part  of  the  money  paid  by  the  man 
to  his  temporary  wife.  This  is,  of  course,  merely  prostitution, 
but  it  is  camouflaged  by  a  religious  setting,  and  thereby  saved 
from  being  a  moral  lapse. 

About  1830  Enfantin  proposed  that  the  "  tyranny  of  mar- 
riage" should  be  abolished  in  France,  and  that  a  system  of  "free 
love"  take  its  place. 

In  1848  the  idea  was  again  brougtt  forward  in  the  legisla- 
tive body  in  France,  when  it  was  demanded  that  a  law  should  be 
passed  declaring  all  women  and  children  to  be  the  property  of  the 
state,  and  providing  regulations  for  leasing  the  women  to  the  men 
for  certain  periods  of  time  as  household  maids  or  housekeepers 
and  for  breeding  purposes. 

To  a  certain  extent  this  effort  to  reintroduce  promiscuous  or 
primitive  tribe  and  horde  relationship  was  actually  carried  out  in 
France  during  the  Kevolution.  A  premium  was  paid  to  the  moth- 
ers of  illegitimate  children,  who  were  called  "les  enfants  de  la 
patrie;"  it  was  forbidden  to  make  any  inquiries  in  regard  to  the 
paternity  of  such  children,  but  the  seeking  out  the  mothers  of 
abandoned  children  was  permitted. 

The  tendency  of  men  of  the  lower  classes,  when  a  revolution 
gives  them  temporary  power,  to  revert  to  similar  ideas,  is  shown 
by  the  following  report : 

LONDON,  Oct.  26,  1918. — Eussian  maidens  under  the  jurisdiction  of  certain 
provincial  Bolshevik  Soviets  become  the  "property  of  the  state"  when  they  reach 
the  age  of  18  and  are  compelled  to  register  at  a  government  "bureau  of  free  love," 
according  to  the  official  gazette  of  the  Vladimir  Soviet  of  Workers  and  Soldiers' 
Deputies,  which  recently  published  the  Soviet's  decree  on  the  subject. 

Under  the  decree  a  woman  having  registered  "has  the  right  to  choose  from 
among  men  between  19  and  50  "a  cohabitant  husband."  The  consent  of  the  man 


SEX    AND   SEX    WORSHIP  185 

chosen  is  necessary,  the  decree  adds,  the  man  chosen  having  the  right  to  make 
any  protest. 

A  similar  privilege  of  choosing  from  among  the  registered  women  is  given 
every  man  between  19  and  50  "without  the  consent  of  the  women."  This  provision 
is  described  as  "in  the  interest  of  the  state." 

Children  born  of  such  marriages  are  to  become  the  "property  of  the  state." 
Stringent  rules  and  penalties  are  laid  down  for  the  protection  of  girls  under  18. 

In  primitive  tribes  the  women  were  mainly  slaves  who  were 
captured  in  predatory  raids;  they  were  considered  the  legitimate 
spoil  of  war  belonging  to  the  victors,  they  could  be  passed  along 
from  man  to  man  or  even  from  horde  to  horde ;  even  the  Bible  ap- 
proved of  this  method  of  getting  wives,  as  we  saw  in  the  rules 
about  taking  captured  women  as  wives  (see  p.  75),  and  the  Koran 
permitted  the  same  disposal  of  captives  in  war  (see  p.  79). 

The  Bible  says,  Gen.  vi,  1,  2:  "And  it  came  to  pass,  when  men 
began  to  multiply  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  daughters  were 
born  unto  them,  that  the  sons  of  God  saw  the  daughters  of  men 
that  they  were  fair;  and  they  took  them  wives  of  all  which  they 
chose." 

Judg.  xxi,  10  et  seq.:  "And  the  congregation  sent  thither 
twelve  thousand  men  and  commanded  them,  saying.  Go 

and  smite  the  inhabitants  of  Jabesh-gilead  with  the  edge  of  the 
sword,  with  the  women  and  children.  And  this  is  the  thing  that 
ye  shall  do,  Ye  shall  utterly  destroy  every  male,  and  every  woman 
that  hath  lain  by  man.  And  they  found  among  the  inhabitants  of 
Jabesh-gilead  four  hundred  young  virgins  that  had  known  no 
man  by  lying  with  any  male;  and  they  brought  them  unto  the 
camp  to  Shiloh  *  *  *  and  they  gave  (the  children  of  Benjamin) 
wives  which  they  had  saved  alive  of  the  Avomen  of  Jabesh-gilead." 

In  many  primitive  people  it  was  considered  wrong  to  marry 
a  relative,  and  as  promiscuous  intercourse  prevented  a  man  from 
knowing  who  of  the  women  were  his  "cousins  or  his  sisters  or  his 
aunts,"  he  could  not  marry  within  the  tribe  at  all;  he  had  to  buy 
or  steal  wives  from  other  tribes.  Such  tribes  were  called  exo- 
gamic,  or  marrying  outside  of  their  own  tribes.  But  this  led  to 
a  form  of  marriage  which  is  spoken  of  as  "marriage  by  theft"  or 
capture ;  and  this  in  early  days  was  probably  the  most  usual  way 
of  obtaining  wives. 

Exogamic  tribes  were  very  numerous.  In  Australia  no  man 
may  marry  a  woman  of  his  mother's  clan,  no  matter  how  unre- 
lated such  a  woman  may  otherwise  be  to  him.  Among  North 


186  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

American  Indians  they  may  not  marry  within  the  same  totem; 
marriages  are  forbidden  between  persons  of  the  same  name  or 
totem. 

The  Romans  kidnapped  the  Sabine  women  (Fig.  63) ;  and 
the  Bible  and  Koran  both  allowed  this  custom.  When  large  raids 
were  made  by  whole  tribes,  all  the  captured  women  became  slaves 
belonging  to  the  tribe  and  could  be  used  for  general  or  promiscu- 
ous intercourse ;  but  when  women  were  obtained  by  personal  raids 
of  one  man,  then  he  claimed  the  woman  as  his  own  slave  and  kept 


Fig.  63. — ' '  Rape  of  the  Sabines, ' '  reproduction  of  statue. 

her  for  his  own  use;  and  where  this  was  the  usual  method  of  ob- 
taining wives,  it  did  away  with  a  promiscuous  relationship  of  the 
sexes.  Men  became  jealous  and  guarded  their  own;  attempted  in- 
fringement on  their  rights  to  their  own  women  leading  to  a  polyg- 
amous family  life  and  a  defending  of  their  rights  even  to  the  ex- 
treme of  murder  of  the  inf  ringer.  The  horde  plan  of  commingling 
of  the  sexes  was  replaced  by  the  herd  system  as  found  among  deer, 
wild  cattle,  wild  horses,  seals,  walruses,  etc. ;  one  male  with  a  num- 
ber of  females. 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  187 

As  this  was  apt  to  occur  more  frequently  among  people  who 
had  settled  habitations,  as  among  agricultural  or  pastoral  peo- 
ple, AVC  find  this  type  of  " patriarchal  family"  among  them.  One 
man,  the  oldest,  was  the  patriarch  of  the  family;  he  had  several 
wives,  but  besides  this  he  could  take  to  himself  his  slaves,  or 
concubines. 

Polygamy  was  the  rule  in  patriarchal  families,  as  among  the 
ancient  Jews;  it  was  not  forbidden  by  the  Old  Testament;  it  was 
common  among  the  Greeks,  but  less  common  among  the  Romans; 
in  nearly  all  Mohammedan  lands  it  is  the  customary  practice,  and 
prevails  generally  in  Asia,  Africa,  Polynesia,  and  among  the 
American  Indians. 

While  we  generally  understand  polygamy  to  imply  a  plural- 
ity of  wives,  it  strictly  means  a  plurality  of  husbands  as  well.  The 
term  polygyny  means  the  marriage  of  one  man  to  several  women 
at  the  same  time;  it  Avould  be  the  better  term  to  use;  but  polyg- 
amy is  so  generally  understood  to  mean  this  that  it  is  hardly 
worth  while  to  change  to  the  use  of  the  term  polygyny,  especially 
as  polyandry  is  in  common  use  to  express  the  marriage  of  one 
woman  to  several  men  at  the  same  time. 

The  Mohammedans  are  permitted  by  the  Koran  to  have  four 
wives  (the  Sultan  seven)  but  there  is  no  limitation  to  the  number 
of  concubines  that  a  man  may  have;  also,  among  the  Mohammed- 
ans there  are  not  so  many  forbidden  degrees  as  among  the  Chris- 
tians, which  accounts  largely  for  the  rapid  spread  of  Moham- 
medanism. 

Polygamy  was  only  recently  abolished  among  the  Mormons 
of  our  own  land  (by  act  of  Congress ;  possibly  still  practiced  to  a 
certain  extent,  but  not  publicly  paraded,  as  formerly). 

Among  these  patriarchal  families  the  fate  of  the  women  was 
of  course  much  better  than  in  tribal  or  horde  relationship;  and 
the  idea  of  "family"  became  a  fixed  institution. 

Among  the  Mohammedans  the  wives  and  concubines  are  gen- 
erally kept  in  seclusion  (in  harems)  and  are  guarded  by  castrated 
slaves  or  eunuchs,  the  chief  of  which  is  the  Kixlaor  aghassi,  or 
the  "master  of  the  maidens."  Harem  means  something  that  is 
forbidden;  but  is  generally  supposed  to  mean  the  female  con- 
tingent of  a  polygamist's  household;  it  really  has  a  meaning 
something  like  in  our  public  buildings — "for  women  only"— or 
"for  men  only."  It  is  like  the  gynaecewn  of  the  ancient  Greeks,— 


188 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


the  apartments  of  the  women — strictly  forbidden  to  strangers — 
"strictly  private."  Any  child  born  in  the  harem  is  supposed  to 
be  the  child  of  the  master,  because  no  other  opportunity  for  im- 
pregnation is  supposed  to  be  possible ;  if  a  concubine  or  slave  be- 
comes a  mother,  the  child  is  free  and  the  mother  can  not  there- 
after be  sold;  she  in  effect  becomes  a  wife,  although  if  the  man 
has  four  wives  already,  the  concubine  can  not  be  called  a  wife ;  but 
she  has  the  rights  of  a  wife. 

The  "harem"  (Fig.  64)  is  an  Asiatic  institution,  but  pre- 
vails throughout  all  Mohammedan  lands.  The  wife  is  subordinate 
to  the  husband,  practically  his  slave  no  matter  how  he  obtained 
her ;  Asiatics  wrote  the  Bible,  hence  these  Asiatic  ideas  regarding 
women  and  wives  were  transferred  to  Christianity,  but  they  were 


Fig.  64. — ' '  In  a  Harem, ' '  from  painting   by  Cecconi. 

ascribed  to  the  fall,  and  to  a  curse  which  was  supposed  to  have 
been  pronounced  on  Eve  by  God. 

The  wives  of  Mohammedans  are  often  obtained  as  with  us,  by 
betrothal,  although  all  details  are  arranged  by  female  relatives 
so  that  the  man  can  not  meet  or  see  his  bride  until  after  the  mar- 
riage; his  mother  or  sisters  become  acquainted  with  the  women 
of  their  class  in  the  public  baths,  where  they  see  them  naked  (Fig. 
65),  and  can  report  about  them  and  their  physical  attractions. 
But  they  can  buy  concubines  in  the  markets  (Fig.  66)  which,  al- 
though now  forbidden  by  law,  are  still  in  existence,  and  those  who 
want  to  buy  a  slave  have  no  difficulty  in  doing  so.  Mohammedans 
are  forbidden  to  have  "images"  of  any  living  object,  just  as 


SEX    AND    SEX    WOIISH  IP 


18!) 


among  the  ancient  Jews;  they  can  not  have  statues  or  paintings 
of  beautiful  nymphs  or  goddesses,  so  they  buy  beautiful  slave- 
girls  whom  they  keep  as  we  keep  statuary,  etc.,  as  something  good 
to  look  at  (Fig.  67).  Of  course,  the  owner  can  take  any  such  slave, 
or  odalisque,  as  sexual  mate,  but  most  of  them  are  kept,  usually 
naked  or  nearly  so,  to  beautify  the  home.  They  are  much  subject 
to  tuberculosis,  through  insufficient  clothing  and  confinement 
indoors. 

Georgia  and  Circassia  furnished  most  of  the  female  slaves  for 
the  Turkish  harems ;  but  in  recent  times  thousands  upon  thousands 
of  Armenian  girls  were  sold  to  the  same  fate;  household  servants 
are  mostly  blacks,  clandestinely  imported  from  Africa. 


Fig.  G5. — "Oriental  Bath,"  from  a  painting  by  Gerome. 

The  Parsees  treat  their  women  much  better  than  do  other 
Asiatic  people;  women  appear  freely  in  public,  and  they  have 
entire  management  of  the  household. 

Among  the  Persians  generally  the  father  is  reverenced  in  an 
extravagant  manner,  but  the  highest  respect  is  paid  to  the  mother 
whose  word  is  law  in  the  household;  the  grandmother  also  is  al- 
most worshipped. 

A  Persian  is  very  glad  to  have  his  wife's  mother  live  with  her, 
as  a  mother-in-law  is  considered  to  be  the  best  guardian  of  a 
wife's  virtue.  Persians  are  polygamous;  in  the  house  the  women 


190 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


wear  a  short  chemise,  which  among  the  rich  is  of  very  thin  gos- 
samer fabric;  a  jacket  open  in  front,  a  skirt  reaching  only  to  the 
middle  of  the  thighs,  and  an  abundance  of  armlets,  bracelets  and 
anklets,  to  which  many  talismans  are  attached,  in  which  Persians 
have  much  faith;  they  go  barefoot;  the  costume  therefore  prac- 
tically displays  all  the  beauties  of  the  body  in  the  privacy  of  the 
home ;  but  when  they  go  out  to  visit  friends,  etc.,  they  are  so  bun- 
dled up  in  shapeless  garments  that  not  even  their  husbands  could 
recognize  them. 

In  the  homes  the  little  girls  are  dressed  like    boys    (male 


Fig.  66. — "Slave    Sale,"    from    painting     Fig.  67. — "An  Odalisque,  "  from  painting 
by  Grerome.  by  Szyndler. 

clothes)  and  the  little  boys  like  girls  (female  clothes)  until  they 
are  about  ten  years  old,  when  they  assume  the  costumes  appropri- 
ate to  their  sex;  this  is  done  to  avoid  the  "evil  eye,"  a  sinister 
influence  which  is  much  dreaded.  Among  Persians  the  logical 
wives  are  considered  to  be  the  cousins  on  the  father's  side. 

Among  the  early  Hebrews  monogamy  was  the  general  rule, 
although  it  was  not  very  strict;  later  on  polygamy  and  concubi- 
nage became  prevalent,  to  the  extent  that  Solomon  had ' '  seven  hun- 
dred wives,  princesses,  and  three  hundred  concubines"  (I  Kings 
xi,  3).  When  the  father  of  the  household  died,  his  wives  and  con- 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  191 

cubines  became  the  property  of  his  heir;  they  went  with  the  in- 
heritance. Nor  were  unions  between  near  relatives  forbidden; 
Abraham  had  his  half-sister  (from  same  father  but  a  different 
mother)  for  wife,  and  in  many  lands  full  sisters  could  be  taken 
for  wives. 

Caligula,  the  tyrant  of  Rome,  had  sexual  congress  with  all 
his  sisters,  one  of  whom,  Drusilla,  he  made  his  official  wife;  the 
other  two  he  drove  away  into  misery.  He  also  took  any  Roman 
matron  or  woman  he  desired,  and  sometimes  invited  other  men 
to  share  them  with  him.  At  the  amphitheatre  shows,  if  he  did 
not  have  enough  victims  to  throw  before  the  wild  animals,  he  had 
some  of  the  spectators  seized,  their  tongues  cut  out  so  they  could 
not  denounce  him,  and  then  they  were  thrown  into  the  arena.  He 
was  finally  killed  by  his  own  guards. 

Caracalla's  mother  (some  say  step-mother)  fell  in  love  with 
him  and  contrived,  as  if  by  accident,  to  be  seen  naked  by  him: 
when  he  saw  her  he  took  her  as  his  wife  and  her  name  appears  as 
his  queen  on  numerous  documents. 

Yet  this  was  probably  an  extreme  case;  as  a  rule  it  was  con- 
sidered improper  for  a  man  to  cohabit  with  his  mother,  or  even 
with  any  other  of  his  father's  wives.  A  sort  of  Solomonic  judg- 
ment is  related  of  Claudius.  He  was  judge  in  a  case  in  which  a 
woman  refused  to  acknowledge  that  a  certain  man  was  her  son. 
Claudius  ruled  that  she  should  marry  him,  which  she  refused  to 
do,  and  finally  admitted  that  she  could  not  marry  him  as  he  was 
her  son. 

In  Greece  a  man  could  marry  his  father's  daughter  by  some 
other  wife  than  his  own  mother  but  not  a  "uterine  sister;"  but 
among  the  ancient  Egyptians  a  pharaoh  usually,  or  at  least  often, 
married  his  full  sister;  Cleopatra,  for  instance,  was  married  to 
her  brother  Ptolemy. 

In  many  lands  in  Africa  a  man  may  have  as  many  wives  as 
lie  can  afford  to  buy.  But  then  there  is  no  particular  trouble 
about  keeping  them,  for  they  need  little  or  no  clothing  and  they 
do  the  work  in  the  fields  and  in  guarding  the  herds.  Such  is  the 
custom  in  the  Congo  district;  among  the  Hottentots  there  is  no 
purchasing  of  wives,  but  the  consent  of  the  parents  is  obtained  by 
presents,  etc.,  and  the  wife  is  not  considered  a  slave. 

The  most  primitive  relation  of  the  sexes  to  each  other  is  one 
of  promiscuous  intercourse.  The  lowest  form  of  marriage  is 


192  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

where  the  men  simply  steal  or  purchase  as  many  women  as  they 
want  and  make  them  their  wives,  but  even  this  is  already  the  be- 
ginning of  family  ties,  and  therefore  the  beginning  of  social 
advancement. 

I  have  already  stated  that  man  is  polygamous  by  nature,  and 
polygamy  is  therefore  the  prevailing  type  of  sexual  relationship 
throughout  the  world.  It  is  the  legally  recognized  relationship  of 
the  sexes  among  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
earth,  and  is  practiced  in  some  form  or  other  by  all  nations  on 
the  globe.  A  strictly  monogamic  people  does  not  exist,  and  strict 
monogamy  in  the  individual  man  is  as  uncommon  as  strict  celi- 
bacy, even  among  us. 

Polygamy  was  first  forbidden  by  law  in  the  early  days  of 
Borne,  when  women  were  so  scarce  that  men  had  to  steal  them  from 
their  neighbors  and  it  was  considered  to  be  unfair  for  one  man 
to  appropriate  several  women  for  himself  while  others  might  not 
be  able  to  obtain  any.  Forgetting  the  origin  of  the  laws  establish- 
ing monogamy,  such  laws  were  kept  in  force  by  states  which  for 
just  as  cogent  reasons  should  allow  polygamy  in  the  interest  of 
the  excess  of  women  over  men  who  can  not  otherwise  find  hus- 
bands. This  is  not  a  question  of  religion,  for  from  both  a  reli- 
gious and  from  a  moral  standpoint  as  much,  or  more,  can  be  said 
in  favor  of  polygamy  as  in  favor  of  monogamy;  it  is  really  only 
a  question  of  expediency  in  a  politico-economic  sense,  whether 
monogamy  or  polygamy  shall  be  the  legally  recognized  form  of 
marriage.  I  have  no  doubt  that  if  it  were  not  for  the  complica- 
tions of  property  interests,  and  if  men  dared  to  publicly  avow 
their  convictions,  a  very  large  number  of  men  and  women  would 
admit  that  legally  recognized  polygamy  would  be  preferable  to 
our  present  system  of  monogamy  with  prostitution  or  "affin- 
ities." 

On  the  other  hand  there  are  no  doubt  many  advocates  of  mo- 
nogamy who  favor  the  present  conditions  largely  from  interested 
motives,  because  it  affords  them  opportunities  of  enjoyment  with 
young  and  pretty  women  without  the  satiety  that  would  come  even 
in  legally  recognized  polygamy,  when  of  course  the  possibilities 
for  variety  now  existing  would  be  exchanged  to  companionships 
for  life. 

Monogamy  is  not  a  distinctly  Christian  practice,  for  it  pre- 
vailed in  many  pre-Christian  nations,  and  is  today  practiced  by 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  193 

some  savage  tribes;  while  on  the  other  hand,  polygamy  was  per- 
mitted by  the  Christian  church  until  about  the  time  of  Luther, 
and  is  not  forbidden  in  the  Bible. 

Monogamy  means  a  marriage  of  one  man  to  one  woman ;  this 
is  the  common  or  legal  form  of  marriage  in  civilized  Christian 
lands.  But  it  is  also  found  in  some  very  primitive  kinds  of  peo- 
ple as  well. 

The  close  relationship  of  a  husband  to  a  wife  in  such  a  mar- 
riage is  a  stronger  tie  than  that  of  any  blood-relationship. 

Gen.  ii,  24:  "Therefore  shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and  his 
mother  and  shall  cleave  unto  his  wife;  and  they  shall  be  one 
flesh." 

Matt,  xix,  4-6:  "Have  ye  not  read  that  lie  which  made  them 
at  the  beginning  made  them  male  and  female,  and  said,  For  this 
cause  shall  a  man  leave  father  and  mother,  and  shall  cleave  to 
his  wife;  and  they  twain  shall  be  one  flesh?  Wherefore  they 
are  no  more  twain,  but  one  flesh.  What  therefore  God  hath  joined 
together,  let  no  man  put  asunder."  (Also  Mark  x,  6-9.) 

Ephes.  v,  31 :  "For  this  cause  shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and 
mother,  and  shall  be  joined  unto  his  wife,  and  they  two  shall  be 
one  flesh.  This  is  a  great  mystery  *  *.  Nevertheless,  let 
every  one  of  you  in  particular  so  love  his  wife  even  as  himself: 
and  the  wife  see  that  she  reverence  her  husband." 

The  Kabbalah,  a  Jewish  system  of  theosophy  which  claimed 
to  have  been  written  in  the  first  century  of  our  era,  but  which  was 
said  by  some  to  have  been  written  about  the  thirteenth  or  four- 
teenth century,  claimed  to  contain  certain  mysteries  which  God 
had  taught  to  Adam  in  paradise,  and  which  had  been  transmitted 
by  oral  tradition  until  they  were  reduced  to  writing. 

It  is  of  course  quite  possible  that  the  theories  contained  in 
the  Kabbalah  were  ancient  Jewish  traditions,  which  may  possibly 
have  come  down  to  the  time  when  they  were  reduced  to  writing, 
by  oral  transmission;  if  so,  they  were  of  equal  antiquity  and  of 
equal  importance  as  those  which  were  written  down  by  Ezra,  and 
which  are  now  known  as  the  Books  of  Moses. 

In  the  Kabbalah  it  is  taught  that  the  highest  and  most  mys- 
terious "God"  or  "Power"  or  whatever  else  we  may  choose  to 
call  it,  was  "En  Soph,"  Pure  Thought,  Supremo  Will;  this  was 
not  composed  of  matter ;  it  was  purely  spiritual. 

From  En  Soph  there  were  ten  emanations  of  spiritual  beings. 


194 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


The  Kabbalah  stated  that  the  "Holy  Ghost  made  all  things  male 
or  female,  because  otherwise  nothing  could  endure."  It  described 
the  archetypal  man  (Fig.  68),  using  many  mystic  references  to 
gemetria,  to  the  peculiar  numerical  values  of  words,  and  to  the 
sex  of  the  left  and  the  right  side,  etc. ;  for  instance,  wisdom  was 
located  in  the  forehead  and  was  male  while  intelligence  was  lo- 
cated in  the  left  side  of  the  chest  and  was  female ;  wisdom,  the  fa- 
ther, and  intelligence,  the  mother,  produced  a  crown.  Love  was 
male  and  was  in  the  right  arm,  justice  was  female  and  resided  in 
the  left  arm,  together  they  produced  beauty,  residing  in  the  bosom 


Fig.  68. — Archetypal  man,  from  the  Kabbalah. 

or  breasts.  Firmness  was  male  and  resided  in  the  right  thigh 
and  splendor  was  female  and  resided  in  the  left  thigh,  and  to- 
gether they  produced  "foundation"  or  sex,  or  sexual  organs. 

"All  the  souls  of  the  whole  human  race  pre-existed  in  the 
world  of  emanations  (from  God)  and  are  all  destined  to  inhabit 
human  bodies.  Each  soul,  prior  to  its  entering  this  world,  con- 
sists of  a  male  and  a  female  potency,  united  into  one  spiritual 
being.  When  a  soul  descends  on  this  earth  the  two  parts  are  sepa- 
rated and  animate  two  different  bodies.  At  the  time  of  marriage, 
the  'Holy  One  (God),  blessed  be  he  who  knows  all  souls  and 
spirits,'  unites  them  again  as  they  were  before;  and  they  again 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  195 

constitute  one  body  and  one  soul,  forming,  as  it  were  the  right 
and  left  of  the  individual." 

The  Kabbalah  claimed  that  it  explains  all  the  hidden  mean- 
ings of  the  Jewish  scriptures;  the  passage  just  quoted  explained 
the  quotations  from  both  the  old  and  the  new  testaments,  stated 
above,  and  explains  also  our  saying  that  marriages  are  made  or 
ordained  in  heaven;  and  it  imparts  a  greater  sanctity  to  the  mo- 
nogamous marriage  by  teaching  that  the  souls  of  husband  and  wife 
were  originally  before  the  birth  of  either,  a  hermaphrodite  spirit, 
both  halves  of  which,  after  existing  without  bodies  for  some  time, 
finally  are  guided  together  again  by  the  "Holy  One  who  knows 
all  souls." 

In  connection  with  this  theory  of  the  Kabbalah  may  be  men- 
tioned the  doctrine  of  the  Mormons  on  polygamy.  The  Mormons 
are  not  a  Christian  sect,  as  some  suppose.  The  chief  god  of  the 
Mormons  is  Adam  (of  Genesis  fame),  while  Christ,  Mohammed, 
Joseph  Smith  and  Brigham  Young  are  also  at  least  partially  di- 
vine. These  divinities  propagate  souls  who  are  destined  to  in- 
habit the  bodies  of  human  beings  born  in  this  world.  They  believe 
it  to  be  the  duty  of  every  woman  to  give  birth  to  as  many  children 
as  possible,  because  all  the  souls  who  do  not  enter  into  children 
at  birth  will  have  no  chance  to  go  to  heaven.  But  as  there  were 
many  more  women  converted  to  Mormonism  than  men,  and  as  it 
was  practically  a  sin  for  a  woman  to  neglect  to  become  a  mother, 
and  as  her  reward  in  heaven  was  proportionate  to  her  doing  her 
duty  in  regard  to  having  children,  polygamy  was  introduced  as  a 
religious  duty  of  this  sect. 

Among  Oriental  slave-holding  nations  there  is  little  true 
love — no  mating  in  a  noble  sense;  the  woman  is  not  courted  nor 
asked  for  consent;  she  is  a  slave,  and  if  her  appearance  and  her 
price  are  satisfactory  the  man  buys  her  and  after  that  it  is  to  her 
interest  to  study  obedience  to  her  master's  desires  and  pleasures. 

In  the  human  being  true  mating  based  on  mutual  friendship 
is  possible  only  when  the  woman  is  not  a  slave.  When  the  wom- 
an's right  to  bestow  her  favors  where  she  pleases  is  generally  ad- 
mitted, wooing  or  courtship,  the  psychic  or  ethical  element  in 
love,  is  enhanced  and  the  carnal  features  of  love  are  purified  by 
the  emotional  sympathies  as  well  as  by  the  intellectual  bonds  of 
affection. 


196  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

Love  in  the  highest  and  purest  sense,  and  marriage  based  on 
mutual  love  and  consent,  is  possible  only  when  the  full  equality 
of  the  woman  with  the  man  is  recognized;  and  then  even  only 
when  questions  of  pecuniary  considerations  like  the  prospective 
inheritance  from  the  father  of  the  bride  or  of  receiving  support 
and  a  home  from  the  husband  are  but  subordinate  or  secondary 
considerations.  The  highest  form  of  love  is  founded  on  a  mutual 
recognition  of  mental,  moral  and  social  worth,  as  well  as  on  a 
desire  for  the  person  or  body,  and  is  possible  only  when  the  whole 
personality  is  loved;  not  when  merely  the  body  is  loved,  which  is 
carnal  love  or  lust,  nor  when  only  the  soul  is  loved,  which  is 
Platonic  love. 

When  Max  Nordau  says  that  "love  in  marriage  is  degraded 
into  a  mere  sensuality  without  the  slightest  value  for  the  com- 
munity," he  refers  to  marriage  as  it  is  ordained  now  by  church 
and  state ;  not  to  an  ideal  moiiogamic  marriage ;  he  fails  to  realize 
the  purity  of  bodily  pleasures  and  caresses  between  man  and 
wife  when  sanctified  by  the  mental  and  ethical  elements  of  love. 
The  carnal  side  of  love  is  not  mere  sensuality;  it  is  necessary  to 
the  perpetuation  of  the  ethical  and  mental  side  of  love,  of  which 
coition  is  merely  the  physical  basis.  Men  and  women  should 
marry  one  another  to  live  together  in  the  joys  of  the  body  as  well 
as  in  the  communion  of  souls ;  but  the  spiritual  element  in  the  rela- 
tion of  the  sexes  should  be  paramount  for  it  implies  companion- 
ship and  elevation  of  the  woman  while  the  predominance  of  the 
sensual  element  in  love  involves  the  subjection,  degradation  and 
prostitution  of  the  woman,  even  in  wedlock.  This  is  even  more 
appreciated  among  some  of  the  so-called  savage  nations  than 
among  ourselves,  for  among  the  Iroquois  and  Hurons  young  cou- 
ples were  obliged  to  live  together  without  sexual  intercourse  for 
one  year  after  marriage,  to  prove  that  higher  motives  than  the 
gratification  of  sensual  pleasure  had  brought  them  together. 

Coition  which  is  not  practiced  from  motives  of  love  for  the 
individual  woman  is  not  love  but  lust ;  it  is  essentially  of  the  na- 
ture of  masturbation,  and  although  often  spoken  of  as  "love"  is 
qualified  as  *  *  carnal  love. ' '  Except  in  the  mechanism  of  its  grati- 
fication lustful  love  has  little  in  common  with  true  love,  such  as 
should  actuate  husband  and  wife,  and  in  which  ethical  elements 
predominate  that  are  entirely  wanting  in  mere  lustful  love. 


SEX    AND   SEX    WORSHIP  197 

" What  is  Love?    'Tis  not  the  kiss 
Of  a  harlot  lip' — the  bliss 

That  doth  perish 

Even  while  we  cherish 
The  fleeting  charm;  and  what  so  fleet  as  this? 

He  is  blessed  in  love  alone 

Who  loves  for  years,  and  loves  but  one!" 

We  read  in  the  18th  and  19th  verses  of  the  5th  chapter  of 
Proverbs,  as  follows :  "  Rejoice  with  the  wife  of  thy  youth.  *  •  " 
let  her  breasts  satisfy  thee  at  all  times  and  be  thou  ravished  al- 
ways with  her  love." 

Following  the  methods  of  our  theological  friends,  this  text 
suggests  the  following  thoughts : 

First. — "Rejoice  with  thy  wife — ."  In  this  sense  it  is  a  re- 
proof to  those  ascetics  who  teach  that  sexual  enjoyments  are 
always  evil  and  to  be  shunned;  the  text  says:  "Rejoice." 

Second. — "Rejoice  with  thy  ivife — ."  Let  sexual  pleasures 
be  enjoyed  in  wedlock;  not  with  strange  women.  "The  lips  of  a 
strange  woman  drop  as  a  honeycomb,  and  her  mouth  is  smoother 
than  oil:  but  her  end  is  bitter  as  worm-wood,  sharp  as  a  two- 
edged  sword.  Her  feet  go  down  to  death ;  her  steps  take  hold  on 
hell"  (Prov.  v,  3-5). 

Third. — "Rejoice  with  the  wife  of  thy  youth — ."  This  ad- 
vice urges  early  marriages,  to  avoid  the  "sowing  of  wild  oats" 
during  the  best  years  of  our  lives  and  then  bringing  an  impaired 
or  exhausted  vitality  as  our  contribution  towards  the  formation 
of  our  children. 

Fourth. — "Let  her  breasts  satisfy  thee — ."  The  text  opposes 
here  the  breasts  as  the  emblems  of  the  ethical  purity  of  a  woman's 
beauty  of  body  to  the  vulva  as  the  symbol  of  carnal  or  animal 
gratification.*  It  means  that  we  should  find  pleasure  in  the  con- 
templation of  a  wife's  beauty,  rather  than  in  the  coarser  and 
grosser  sensual  caress  of  coition. 

Fifth.— "Be  thou  ravished—."  Let  all  your  senses  be  in- 
toxicated with  the  bodily  and  mental  pleasures  that  a  wife  can 
give. 

Sixth.— "Be  thou  ravished  always—."     Let  the  ethical   or 

'See  explanation  of  beauty  in  the  Kabbalah  (page  193)  which  accounts  for  the  "breasts"  being 
the  symbol  of  beauty  in  the  biblical  text  under  consideration. 


198  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

mental  element  in  your  love  for  your  wife  so  fill  the  mind  with 
pleasant  thoughts  as  to  exclude  carnal  desires  for  all  other  women. 
Seventh. — "Be  thou  ravished  always  ivith  her  love." — This 
makes  it  the  duty  of  the  wife  so  to  use  the  beauty  of  her  body  as 
well  as  her  mental  charms  that  her  husband  may  be  satisfied  with 
the  love  she  gives  him,  so  that  he  may  never  be  tempted  to  seek 
elsewhere  a  love  that  she  denies  him.  The  wife's  love,  in  its 
blending  of  sensual  and  psychic  attractions,  is  the  anchor  that 
holds  the  husband  to  morality  and  continence. 

"Love,  thou  hast  every  bliss  in  store; 
'Tis  friendship,  and  'tis  something  more. 
Each  other  every  wish  they  give : 
Not  to  know  love  is  not  to  live." 

(Gray.) 

Monogamy,  based  on  the  equality  of  the  woman  with  the  man, 
is  the  highest  type  of  sexual  relationship,  but  it  is  not  possible 
under  present  church  and  state  laws,  because  neither  the  state 
nor  any  Christian  church  recognizes  the  equality  of  the  woman 
with  the  man. 

The  ritual  of  the  Church  of  England  says:  "The  woman's 
will,  so  God  says,  shall  be  subject  to  the  man,  and  he  shall  be  her 
master;  that  is,  the  woman  shall  not  live  a  life  according  to  her 
own  will  *  *  *  and  must  neither  begin  nor  complete  anything 
ivithout  the  man.  Where  he  is  she  must  be,  and  bend  before  him 
as  her  master,  whom  she  shall  fear  and  to  whom  she  shall  be  sub- 
ject and  obedient." 

In  Germany  the  Kaiser  said :  "Woman  is  for  the  church,  the 
kitchen  and  for  children."  ("Die  Frau  ist  fuer  Kirche,  Kueche 
und  Kinder.") 

A  Law  Digest  defines  legal  disability  as  "the  status  of  being 
an  infant,  a  lunatic  or  a  married  woman." 

In  Scandinavia,  for  the  last  few  years,  a  commission  is  at 
work  to  formulate  better  conditions  for  monogamic  marriage; 
divorce  is  to  be  by  common  consent,  with  a  reversal  of  the  indi- 
vidual property  of  man  and  wife  to  each,  and  an  equitable  divi- 
sion of  property  accumulated  while  the  marriage  lasted.  I  do 
not  know  what  disposition  is  to  be  made  of  the  children,  but  it 
is  reasonable  to  presume  that  the  present  theory  that  they  belong 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  199 

to  the  husband  will  be  modified,  and  the  woman's  right  in  them 
will  be  recognized. 

When  the  churches  are  ready  to  abandon  the  Asiatico-Biblical 
doctrine  of  the  inferiority  and  servitude  of  the  wife,  or  woman, 
and  when  the  laws  (of  all  countries)  are  ready  to  recognize  the 
equality  of  the  woman  as  a  human  being,  entitled  to  her  own  chil- 
dren and  to  her  own  earnings,  then  monogamic  marriage,  and 
sexual  pleasures  based  on  mutual  enjoyment  and  mutual  desires, 
will  make  marriage  the  ideal  relationship  poets  have  always  rep- 
resented it  to  be. 

"All  thoughts,  all  passions,  all  delights, 
Whatever  stirs  this  mortal  frame, 
All  are  but  ministers  of  Love 
And  feel  his  sacred  flame." 

(Coleridge — Love.) 

Max  Nordau  said  that  "not  one  man  out  of  a  thousand  can 
truthfully  say  on  his  death-bed  that  he  never  in  his  life  had  con- 
nection with  a  woman  not  his  wife." 

Society  does  not  expect  continence  in  a  man;  it  is  only  ex- 
pected that  he  keep  his  sexual  digressions  from  notoriety.  "Sow- 
ing wild  oats"  is  tacitly  tolerated,  if  it  does  not  actually  make  the 
man  more  desirable  or  more  interesting  in  society  circles  and 
among  society  women. 

The  poet  Browning  wrote: 

Men  "love  so  many  women  in  their  youth 
And  even  in  age  they  all  love  whom  they  please ; 
And  yet  the  best  of  men  confide  to  friends 
That  'tis  not  beauty  makes  the  lasting  love— 
They  spend  a  day  with  such,  and  tire  the  next; 
They  like  soul — well,  then,  they  like  fantasy, 
Novelty  even.    Let  us  confess  the  truth, 
Horrible  though  it  be — ." 

"The  world  loves  a  spice  of  wickedness,"  says  Longfellow; 
natural  instincts,  cultivated  passions,  and  social  customs  favor 
unfaithfulness  on  the  part  of  the  man,  and  a  wise  wife  is  conven- 
iently blind  and  deaf  to  such  a  condition. 

Originally  in  Greece  and  Rome  it  was  held  that  a  man  could 


200  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

not  commit  adultery ;  this  could  be  done  only  by  the  woman.  The 
reason  why  the  adultery  of  the  husband  is  of  less  serious  char- 
acter than  the  adultery  of  the  wife  is  of  course  obvious  to  every- 
one ;  it  does  not  interfere  with  his  ability  to  give  full  satisfaction 
to  all  desires  of  his  wife;  it  brings  no  disturbing  element  into 
the  family  in  the  way  of  offspring;  it  is  unlikely  to  incapacitate 
him  from  doing  his  work  or  to  do  his  connubial  duties;  it  casts 
no  doubt  on  the  parentage  of  the  children;  and  it  does  not  give 
much  rise  to  scandal  if  the  husband  is  discreet,  for  it  is  generally 
ignored  in  polite  circles;  and  last,  not  least,  to  many  wives  it  is 
a  welcome  relief  from  the  amorous  demonstrations  of  their  hus- 
bands. Many  women  object  to  coition  as  a  part  of  their  duty  to 
their  husbands ;  of  course,  husbands  often  resent  such  an  attitude 
and  either  force  their  attentions  on  their  wives  or  leave  the  wife 
and  sue  for  divorce.  But  if  there  are  children,  then  for  the  chil- 
dren 's  sake  divorce  should  be  avoided.  Under  such  circumstances 
a  man  is  a  more  loving  husband  if  he  respects  his  wife 's  antipathy 
to  sexual  caresses,  but  goes  quietly  elsewhere  to  gratify  himself, 
than  is  the  man  who  enforces  his  legal  rights  in  the  courts. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  unfaithfulness  of  the  wife  in  compar- 
ison with  that  of  the  husband  is  morally  a  much  more  weighty  of- 
fence; public  sentiment  is  such  that  when  it  becomes  known  it 
dishonors  the  woman  and  excludes  her  from  all  respectable  soci- 
ety; it  dishonors  her  family,  alienates  her  friends,  throws  doubt 
over  the  parentage  of  her  children  and  blights  their  lives  with  the 
memory  of  her  infidelity. 

I  am  not  discussing  here  whether  this  is  just,  or  as  it  should 
be;  I  am  simply  stating  what  are  the  conditions  in  modern  soci- 
ety. Of  one  thing,  however,  there  can  be  no  doubt — the  story  of 
Jesus  and  the  woman  taken  in  adultery  (John  viii,  3-11)  teaches 
us  that  we  should  be  more  merciful  in  judging  the  woman  who 
transgresses,  and  who  is  generally  more  sinned  against  than 
sinning  (Fig.  372). 

A  curious  form  of  marriage  found  in  Thibet  and  some  other 
Asiatic  countries  is  polyandry, — one  woman  having  several  hus- 
bands. It  is  a  question  whether  we  should  consider  this  a  distinct 
type  of  marriage,  or  simply  a  relationship  depending  upon  neces- 
sity ;  in  Thibet  women  are  sold  to  be  wives,  and  a  rich  man  usually 
buys  several  women  and  practices  polygamy ;  a  man  who  is  able  to 
buy  a  woman  for  himself  alone  considers  himself  lucky  in  practicing 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  201 

monogamy ;  but  when  men  are  too  poor  to  be  able  to  buy  a  woman 
for  individual  possession,  several  club  together  and  buy  a  wife 
in  common,  on  the  principle  that  half-a-loaf  is  better  than  no 
bread,  and  they  practice  polyandry.  If  women  in  Thibet  were 
free  to  dispose  of  themselves,  many  would  do  as  women  do  amongst 
us,  not  tie  themselves  to  a  few  men  but  accommodate  many ;  they 
would  practice  prostitution  in  place  of  polyandry. 

Still,  polyandry  is  peculiar  in  this  that  the  woman  is  usu- 
ally the  wife  of  several  brothers ;  this  form  of  marriage,  however, 
has  brought  about  a  recognized  superiority  of  the  women,  which 
in  many  cases  amounts  to  almost  a  position  of  being  a  princess ; 
she  governs  and  rules  the  household.  It  has  another  great  advan- 
tage; a  number  of  men  have  their  sexual  appetites  satisfied  in  a 
proper  and  legal  manner,  and  yet  the  number  of  children  in  a 
household  is  not  greater  than  in  a  monogamic  household,  because 
this  is  limited  by  the  bearing  capacity  of  the  one  woman;  the 
household  has  a  number  of  providers,  and  not  an  unreasonable 
number  to  be  provided  for,  and  therefore  there  is  a  condition  of 
comfort  or  even  of  wealth  which  would  not  be  possible  if  each 
man  had  a  wife  and  a  group  of  children  to  maintain.  The  children 
know  the  oldest  of  the  brothers  as  "father"  and  all  the  others 
are  "uncles."  And  of  course,  inheritance  goes  by  the  mother. 

The  practice  is  not  confined  to  Thibet;  the  Todas,  of  India, 
are  a  tribe  in  which  a  woman  marries  all  the  brothers  of  a  family. 
Their  religion  is  a  sort  of  Hinduism;  they  worship  their  dairy 
cattle.  As  to  their  cosmogony,  they  consider  themselves  autoch- 
thones— i.  e.,  they  believe  that  they  originally  grew  out  of  the  soil, 
like  plants. 

Among  the  Navis  of  Malabar,  also,  a  woman  has  several  hus- 
bands, but  these  are  seldom  brothers.  The  woman  lives  with  her 
mother,  or  brother,  or  in  some  cases  she  has  a  house  whore  she 
receives  her  husbands.  This  of  course  does  not  differ  very  much 
from  prostitution  among  ourselves,  except  that  the  arrangement 
is  lasting,  all  the  husbands  are  attached  to  her  and  provide  for 
her  for  life. 

A  passage  in  the  Mahabharata,  a  Hindu  worK,  tells  how  the 
five  brothers  Pandava  "married  the  fair  Draaupadi  with  eyes  of 
lotus  blue;"  this  seems  to  indicate  that  romance  is  not  entirely 
done  away  with  in  such  unions. 

Caesar  spoke  of  a  similar  condition  existing  in  Britain,  and 


202 


SEX   AND   SEX   WOKSHIP 


Polybius  says  it  prevailed  in  Sparta.  It  is  practiced  now  by  about 
30,000,000  of  Asiatic  people. 

We  have  already  referred  to  a  similar  relationship  in  Hawaii, 
where  brothers  had  all  their  wives  in  common  and  sisters  had  all 
their  husbands  in  common.  This  seems  to  be  like  polyandry  in 
some  regards,  but  more  on  the  principle  of  "what  is  sauce  for 
the  goose  is  also  sauce  for  the  gander." 

A  peculiar  relationship  of  the  sexes  is  concubinage.  The 
origin  of  this  arrangement  was  probably  the  sterility  of  the  law- 
ful wife.  We  read  in  the  Bible,  Gen.  xvi,  1 :  * '  Now  Sarai,  Abram  's 


Fig.  69. — "Presentation  of  Hagar,"  from  painting  by  Steuben. 

wife,  bare  him  no  children ;  and  she  had  an  handmaid,  an  Egyptian, 
whose  name  was  Hagar.  And  Sarai  said  unto  Abram,  Behold 
now,  the  Lord  hath  restrained  me  from  bearing;  I  pray  thee,  go 
in  to  my  maid ;  it  may  be  that  I  may  obtain  children  by  her.  And 
Abram  hearkened  to  the  voice  of  Sarai"  (Fig.  69);  or  again: 

"And  when  Rachel  saw  that  she  bare  Jacob  no  children 
she  said  (to  Jacob),  Behold  my  maid  Bilbah,  go  in  unto 
her ;  and  she  shall  bear  upon  my  knees,  that  I  may  also  have  chil- 
dren by  her.  And  she  gave  him  Bilbah  her  handmaid  to  wife ;  and 
Jacob  went  in  unto  her"  (Gen.  i,  3-4). 

There  are  many  references  to  concubines  in  the  Old  Testa- 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  203 

ment;  David  had  seven  wives  and  ten  concubines;  Solomon  had 
seven  hundred  wives  and  three  hundred  concubines;  Rehoboam 
had  eighteen  wives  and  sixty  concubines ;  etc. 

In  Mohammedan  lands  there  is  no  limit  to  the  number  of 
concubines  a  man  may  possess. 

In  European  lands  concubinage  was  general  until  quite  re- 
cent times,  and  the  position  of  the  concubine  was  an  honorable  one. 

It  also  persists  among  the  European  nobility  in  the  form  of 
morganatic  marriages  which  are  entered  upon  from  love,  and 
when  later  official  marriages  must  be  contracted  for  state  reasons, 
these  " left-handed  marriages"  are  either  discontinued,  or  are 
maintained  on  the  quiet,  along  with  the  official  family,  thus  con- 
stituting polygamy.  In  such  morganatic  marriages  the  title  or 
rank  is  not  inherited  by  the  children,  but  no  disgrace  attaches  to 
them,  or  to  the  woman. 

The  official  marriages,  for  state  reasons,  of  course  furnish 
the  heir  apparent,  the  crown  prince,  or  the  children  who  can  in- 
herit the  title.  To  make  sure  that  there  was  no  doubt  about  the 
heirs  of  a  royal  house,  it  was  a  requirement  in  medieval  times 
that  the  ministers  of  state  were  called  in  to  actually  witness  the 
birth  of  the  children  of  a  queen  or  empress,  so  that  they  could 
officially  certify  that  they  were  possible  "heirs  apparent."  To 
be  a  queen  or  empress  had  its  advantages,  but  in  those  days  it 
also  had  its  humiliations. 

A  similar  system  is  not  uncommon  among  us,  but  the  concu- 
bine is  called  the  mistress,  and  her  position  is  not  considered  an 
honorable  one,  although  it  is  infinitely  better  than  that  of  a 
prostitute.  The  practice  is  tacitly  tolerated,  but  must  not  be  pub- 
licly paraded. 

According  to  our  laws  sterility  or  barrenness  of  the  wife  is 
a  cause  for  divorce,  but  is  it  not  cruel  to  a  woman  who,  in  every- 
thing but  this  her  misfortune,  may  be  a  devoted  wife,  to  break 
up  a  relationship  which  may  be  ideally  happy  in  all  the  ethical 
and  sensual  relations  of  marriage?  Does  not  the  mental  anguish 
of  a  Josephine,  for  instance,  whom  Napoleon  so  ardently  loved, 
but  whom  he  divorced  that  he  might  secure  an  heir,  appeal  to  us 
to  permit  a  less  cruel  solution  of  such  an  unfortunate  condition? 

There  have  been  frequent  suggestions  that  the  recent  world- 
war  may  make  it  necessary  for  some  countries  to  permit  either 
some  legal  form  of  concubinage,  or  polygamy,  to  recoup  itself  in 


204  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

population.  There  is  nothing  of  a  religious  character  to  prevent 
the  passing  of  laws  to  this  effect,  as  there  is  nothing  in  the  Bible 
to  forbid  it;  it  would  be  against  our  prejudices,  but  state  policy 
may  demand  some  action  of  this  kind  and  it  is  a  matter  for  human 
legislators  to  determine. 

A  sin  is  a  transgression  against  the  laws  of  God;  the  laws  of 
God  do  not  forbid ;  therefore  concubinage  or  polygamy  would  not 
be  sin.  Besides,  "laws  of  God"  are  not  recognized  by  everybody. 

A  vice  is  a  transgression  against  the  laws  of  nature  or  against 
oneself;  these  practices  are  not  against  any  laws  of  nature,  there- 
fore there  could  be  no  objection  on  this  account. 

A  crime  is  a  transgression  against  the  laws  of  the  land.  Both 
concubinage  and  polygamy  are  crimes  when  they  are  forbidden 
by  the  laws,  but  they  are  legitimate  practices  in  those  lands  whose 
laws  approve  of  them.  At  present  they  are  crimes  with  us,  but 
they  would  not  be  if  our  laws  were  changed. 

We  are  apt  to  feel  that  our  prejudices  could  decide  such  mat- 
ters, but  there  has  been  so  much  agitation  against  an  open  and 
impartial  discussion  of  these  questions,  that  it  is  doubtful  whether 
legislators  would  have  the  courage  to  discuss  such  questions  at  all. 

Prostitution,  as  universally  existing,  is  but  a  survival  of  pro- 
miscuous cohabitation  similar  to  that  which  existed  in  the  earliest 
types  of  human  tribe  organization.  History  shows  that  it  has  al- 
ways existed,  and  it  is  probable  that  it  will  always  continue  to 
exist ;  there  will  always  be  men  who  can  not  marry,  for  economic 
reasons,  but  who  have  passions  like  other  men;  there  will  always 
be  women  who,  rather  than  become  the  legal  slave  of  one  man, 
will  prefer  to  be  the  mistress  of  many  men. 

Suppression  of  prostitution  will  never  be  possible ;  regulation 
is  possible. 

In  recent  years  many  educated  people,  college  and  university 
bred  men  and  women,  rebelling  against  the  unjust  degradation 
imposed  on  the  woman  by  entering  legal  wedded  relations,  have 
preferred  to  ignore  the  laws  and  to  enter  into  "free  love"  unions, 
to  be  based  on  mutual  consent  only,  sometimes  called  "common- 
law"  marriages.  Educated  women  often  prefer  such  a  union,  be- 
cause they  do  not  become  the  slaves  of  the  men,  but  remain  mis- 
tresses of  their  own  destinies;  any  resulting  children  are  their 
own ;  their  earnings  are  their  own  and  they  may  choose  what  pro- 
fession or  calling  they  like.  Lastly,  such  unions  are  based  on 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  20.") 

rational  modes  of  living,  and  control  of  reproduction  is  usually 
favored,  so  that  an  overproduction  of  children  is  avoided;  "birth- 
control"  is  practiced. 

As  long  as  the  laws  and  the  rules  of  the  church  or  of  religion 
are  as  they  are,  many  people  will  prefer  to  live  together  in  bonds 
that  can  be  broken  when  love  is  gone.  As  long  as  love  lasts  (and 
it  is  more  apt  to  last  in  such  a  union  than  in  any  other)  free  love 
is  ideally  happy. 

In  our  own  land  this  is  not  a  burning  question,  because  our 
men  tacitly  ignore  the  laws  and  the  church,  and  do  not  attempt 
to  coerce  or  control  their  wives,  but  let  them  do  as  they  please; 
but  in  lands  where  the  full  legal  rights  of  the  husband  are  insisted 
on,  there  have  been  serious  threats  on  the  part  of  the  women,  to 
strike  against  the  institution  of  marriage,  and  to  agree  to  live  in 
"free  love"  only.  "We  have  fought  a  world's  war  for  democracy, 
for  human  rights ;  it  will  have  been  fought  in  vain  if  it  does  not 
bring  about  the  freedom  of  woman  from  the  disabilities  now  le- 
gally forced  on  her.  She  is  a  human  being  also! 

Celibacy 

Originally,  in  Latin,  the  word  virtus  meant  the  attributes  of 
a  man,  something  like  our  word  virility ;  it  meant  bravery  or  cour- 
age, which  was  esteemed  as  the  highest  type  of  virtue  in  a  man 
among  people  of  the  warlike  type  of  the  ancient  Romans.  Grad- 
ually, however,  this  meaning  of  the  word  became  less  important 
and  another  significance,  expressing  the  purity  or  chastity  of 
women,  was  substituted,  so  that  now  it  is  generally  used  as  equiv- 
alent to  castitas  or  chastity;  a  virtue  which,  curiously  enough,  is 
not  a  characteristic  which  is  generally  ascribed  to  men. 

Uprightness  of  living,  high  ideals  of  purpose,  abstaining  from 
vicious  desires,  especially  in  regard  to  sexual  indulgences,  a  high 
and  chivalrous  regard  for  the  purity  of  womanhood,  a  preference 
for  virtue  for  virtue's  sake,  abstaining  from  selfish  gratification 
at  the  expense  of  innocent  women,  was  inculcated  as  an  essential 
characteristic  of  masculine  nobility  of  thought  and  action,  even 
by  pre-Christian  ancients. 

The  teachings  of  some  of  the  old  Greek  and  Roman  philos- 
ophers, such  as  Aristotle,  Plato  and  others,  were  as  noble  as  those 
of  any  modern  writers,  even  though  they  were  what  we  now  call 
"heathens." 


206  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

The  North  American  tribe  of  Chippewa  Indians  have  a  secret 
society  called  Mide ;  the  moral  instructions  in  this  lodge  are  given 
in  songs.  Their  ancient  religion  is  still  taught,  and  here  is  one  of 
their  characteristic  songs : 

"Do  not  speak  ill  of  the  Mide 
My  Mide  brethren 
Wherever  you  may  be 
Do  not  speak  ill  of  a  woman 
My  Mide  brethren." 

This  seems  high  principled  for  savages,  for  though  many  of 
these  Indians  are  now  civilized,  their  lodge,  its  teachings  and  its 
songs,  are  very  ancient.  Compare  the  teachings  with  the  Japanese 
"mode  of  life"  (p.  14). 

In  the  ages  previous  to  Christianity  there  were  many  who 
realized  that  the  best  interests  of  the  state  required  orderly  mar- 
riage relationship  as  contributing  best  towards  happiness  and 
the  morality  of  the  citizens ;  Sparta  and  other  states  imposed  pen- 
alties on  bachelors,  and  even  in  modern  times  it  has  frequently 
been  proposed  to  impose  taxes  on  bachelors ;  some  states  even  sug- 
gesting such  a  measure  to  raise  funds  for  assisting  unmarried  la- 
dies who  were  in  want.  Among  the  Spartans  one  disability  imposed 
on  bachelors  was  that  they  could  not  be  admitted  to  the  public 
athletic  games,  at  which  both  young  men  and  young  women  com- 
peted in  athletic  games  in  a  state  of  entire  nudity.  On  the  other 
hand,  there  have  been  advantages  proposed  to  the  married,  with 
a  view  to  induce  as  great  a  desire  to  enter  the  married  relation- 
ship as  possible;  and  now,  a  goodly  number  of  marriages,  and  a 
goodly  number  of  births  are  construed  to  mean  a  healthy  con- 
dition of  the  affairs  of  state,  so  that  from  both  civic  and  religious 
considerations  marriages  are  encouraged  as  highly  desirable. 

There  have,  however,  at  all  times  been  people  who  have  held 
different  views.  The  ascetics  taught  that  man  has  a  spirit  which 
is  an  emanation  from  God  himself — "the  breath  of  God" — and  a 
body  which  was  made  of  matter,  which  was  therefore  looked  down 
upon  and  despised  and  condemned  as  evil.  Such  fanatics  believed 
that  anything  that  tended  to  produce  a  state  of  happiness  must 
be  evil,  and  they  therefore  tried  to  deprive  people  of  everything 
that  was  pleasant,  in  order,  as  they  thought,  to  make  them  mor- 
ally better.  This  ascetic  tendency  was  to  be  found  in  all  ages,  and 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  207 

among  all  people  of  all  the  religions  of  earth.  It  reached  its  high- 
est development  in  some  Oriental  nations,  as  among  the  fakirs  of 
the  Hindus,  who  inflict  curious  and  painful  injuries  on  themselves, 
such  as  closing  a  hand  until  the  nails  grow  through  the  palm  to 
the  back,  sitting  or  reclining  on  boards  studded  with  pointed  nails, 
sitting  before  hot  fires,  looking  at  the  sun  until  they  become  blind, 
standing  on  one  leg  day  and  night  or  standing  on  a  pillar  for 
years,  or  indulging  in  other  senseless  and  cruel  penances  which 
are  supposed  to  make  their  souls  more  godlike.  As  Prescott  ex- 
pressed it,  "making  earth  a  hell  in  order  to  gain  heaven." 

The  ascetics  of  all  ages  and  countries  thought  that  to  refuse 
to  enjoy  the  ordinary  pleasures  of  life  was  a  very  meritorious  act ; 
and  the  credit  given  in  heaven  for  such  self-abnegation  was  sup- 
posed to  be  in  direct  proportion  to  the  pleasure  which  was  thus 
declined.  We  would  perhaps  not  be  far  wrong  if  we  considered 
such  mental  attitudes  to  be  forms  of  insanity. 

To  live  on  the  coarsest  and  simplest  of  foods,  to  drink  only 
water,  to  sleep  on  a  litter  of  straw,  to  go  without  washing  or 
combing  or  cutting  of  hair,  to  let  the  finger  nails  grow,  to  wear 
the  coarsest  clothing,  or  to  whip  themselves  with  nettles,  or  with 
thongs  into  which  small  pointed  wires  had  been  interwoven,  were 
all  considered  to  be  very  meritorious  acts  in  the  eyes  of  God ;  and 
as  sexual  indulgence  was  one  of  the  greatest  of  pleasures,  absten- 
tion from  it  was  necessarily  one  of  the  greatest  virtues. 

Only  a  few  years  ago,  in  Denver,  if  I  remember  aright,  a 
priest  fainted  while  saying  mass,  who  was  found  to  be  wearing  a 
coarse  undershirt  to  the  inside  of  which  dozens  of  very  small  fish- 
hooks had  been  sewed,  which  caught  in  his  flesh  and  caused  tor- 
ture enough  to  make  him  faint ;  and  this  self-torture  and  mortifi- 
cation of  the  flesh  is  usually  undertaken  in  the  hope  that  it  will 
subdue  carnal  desire  or  the  natural  passion  for  intercourse  with 
women. 

For  instance,  Origen,  one  of  the  early  Christian  church- 
fathers,  mutilated  himself  by  emasculating  himself,  so  that  he 
might  escape  temptation  while  teaching  mixed  classes  of  men  and 
women  the  Christian  religion, 

St.  Anthony  is  said  never  to  have  bathed  himself,  holding  that 
bathing  and  the  care  for  the  body  relaxed  the  body  and  made  it 
more  likely  to  succumb  to  carnal  temptations;  it  is  claimed  for 
him  that  he  never  saw  himself  naked. 


208  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

Men  of  this  type  condemned  the  most  ordinary  refinements 
of  life  as  unholy  and  wicked.  St.  Bonaventure  narrates  that  at 
the  end  of  the  X  Century  the  sister  of  Bomanus  Argulus  "scan- 
dalized all  Venice  by  an  odd  and  unusual  form  of  luxury,"  which 
consisted  in  using  a  fork  instead  of  her  fingers  when  eating;  and 
the  chronicler  Dandolo,  full  of  horror  at  such  depravity,  adds  that 
the  unhappy  woman  was  "by  a  chastisement  sent  from  heaven, 
attacked  by  a  disease  that  caused  her  body  to  exhale,  even  before 
death  the  odor  of  corruption." 

The  Essenes  were  a  Jewish  sect  which  practiced  very  severe 
asceticism ;  they  did  not  allow  marriage  or  intercourse  with  women, 
but  not  because  they  thought  this  particularly  wrong  but  because 
they  considered  all  women  to  be  fickle  and  unreliable.  One  sec- 
tion of  the  Essenes  permitted  marriage,  but  strictly  prohibited 
sexual  intercourse  except  for  the  express  purpose  of  the  begetting 
of  children.  The  necessity  of  the  sexual  act  was  recognized,  but 
the  pleasurable  feature  of  it  was  to  be  avoided  as  much  as  possible. 

The  early  Christians  were  mostly  poor  and  ignorant  people; 
the  faith  made  most  converts  among  slaves.  The  disciples  of  the 
new  faith  were  told  to  sell  all  they  had  and  to  give  to  the  com- 
munity ;  ' '  Jesus  said  unto  him,  If  thou  wilt  be  perfect,  go  and  sell 
that  thou  hast,  and  give  to  the  poor,  and  thou  shalt  have  treasure 
in  heaven,  and  come  and  follow  me.  But  when  the  young  man 
heard  that  saying  he  went  away  sorrowful ;  for  he  had  great  pos- 
sessions. Then  said  Jesus  unto  his  disciples,  Verily,  I  say  unto 
you,  that  a  rich  man  shall  hardly  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
*  *  *  it  is  easier  for  a  camel  to  go  through  the  eye  of  a  needle, 
than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  the  kingdom  of  God"  (Matt,  xix, 
21-24).  These  early  Christians  believed  that  riches  and  the  ties 
of  family  were  hindrances  to  leading  a  good  Christian  life,  and 
they  were  advised  to  forsake  all  such  ties  and  follow  Jesus.  "If 
any  man  come  to  me  and  hate  not  his  father  and  mother,  and 
wife  and  children,  and  brethren  and  sisters,  yea,  and  his  own  life 
also,  he  can  not  be  my  disciple.  *  *  *  So  likewise,  whosoever 
he  be  of  you  that  f  orsaketh  not  all  that  he  hath,  he  can  not  be  my 
disciple"  (Luke  xiv,  26  and  33). 

In  other  words,  the  early  Christians  had  to  forswear  every- 
thing that  their  human  nature  held  dear,  and  to  subdue  all  human 
desires  for  family  and  friends  and  riches  in  order  to  be  good 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  20{) 

Christians;  and  the  means  by  which  this  was  to  be  accomplished 
was  solitude,  poverty,  celibacy,  penances  and  fasting. 

Jesus  went  even  further;  he  said:  "there  be  eunuchs  which 
have  made  themselves  eunuchs  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven's  sake. 
He  that  is  able  to  receive  it,  let  him  receive  it"  (Matt,  xix,  12). 
In  other  words,  'Met  those  who  can  take  a  hint,  do  so." 

St.  Jerome  (Hieronymus)  lived  in  the  latter  half  of  the  IV 
Century,  and  acting  on  such  advice  by  Jesus  himself,  he  became 
one  of  the  main  promoters  of  celibate  orders,  both  monasteries 
and  nunneries.  lie  organized  associations  of  this  kind,  and  found 
many  enthusiastic  disciples,  and  the  church  has  maintained  them 
ever  since.  St.  Jerome  himself  founded  such  an  order  of  disciples 
composed  of  Eoman  ladies  and  maidens  who  met  together  in  the 
house  of  Marcella  to  study  the  Scriptures  under  his  instruction. 

This  movement,  once  introduced,  spread  widely;  those  who 
entered  the  orders  took  vows  of  chastity,  poverty  and  obedience; 
but  "chastity"  was  construed  to  mean  celibacy,  which  was  not 
always  conducive  to  true  chastity  or  virtue,  but  often  led  to  ex- 
cesses of  various  kinds. 

For  instance,  Jeanne  Marie  Guyon  was  born  in  1648  of 
wealthy  parents;  she  came  into  contact  with  fanatics  of  the  kind 
just  described,  and  soon  became  addicted  to  mystical  thoughts, 
the  results  of  brooding  over  certain  passages  in  the  Bible.  In  her 
12th  year  she  wore  the  name  of  Jesus  inscribed  (or  tattooed)  on 
her  body,  and  commenced  to  practice  many  austerities.  She 
made  a  vow  that  she  would  always  subordinate  her  will  to  the  will 
of  God.  When  she  was  not  quite  16  years  old  her  parents  married 
her  to  M.  Guyon,  who  probably  did  not  find  much  happiness  in 
this  union,  for  she  prayed  almost  uninterruptedly  until  in  1672 
when  she  was  24  years  old,  she  drew  up  a  formal  solemn  mar- 
riage contract  or  act  of  consecration  by  which  she  became  con- 
tracted to  Jesus  as  his  spouse,  and  she  sealed  this  with  her  ring 
and  signed  it  with  her  own  Hood.  Such  cases  of  fanaticism  were 
not  uncommon. 

One  of  the  most  common  results  of  such  organizations  was  to 
make  the  members  very  narrow  and  bigoted. 

Fanatics  become  intolerant  of  any  other  beliefs  than  their 
own,  and  they  also  think  those  who  believe  otherwise  are  wilfully 
impious  and  they  seek  to  impose  their  views  on  them,  by  force  if 
necessary.  For  instance,  Hypatia  was  a  celebrated  mathematician 


210  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

and  philosopher  at  Alexandria,  born  about  370  A.D.  In  the  con- 
flicts between  the  various  factions  of  Christians,  when  Cyril  be- 
came patriarch  in  412,  she  became  an  object  of  fear  to  the  monks 
belonging  to  the  church,  on  account  of  her  caustic  agitation  against 
the  doctrines  of  the  church;  the  monks  together  with  a  mob  of 
fanatical  followers,  and  possibly  at  the  instigation  of  Cyril  him- 
self, seized  her,  tore  the  clothing  from  her,  and  hacked  her  naked 
body  to  pieces. 

Others  became  insane,  or  intolerantly  fanatic,  and  in  later 
times  some  of  these  orders  became  the  bigoted  promoters  of  the 
inquisition  and  of  its  autos-da-fe,  its  tortures  and  its  cruelties  of 
many  kinds.  There  were  even  in  comparatively  early  times  some 
who  tried  to  stem  this  perverse  tendency  in  the  Christian  church ; 
Saints  Augustine  and  Chrysostom  taught  the  sanctity  of  the  Chris- 
tian family  life,  but  multitudes  preferred  to  follow  the  advice  of 
St.  Paul:  "It  is  good  for  a  man  not  to  touch  a  woman"  (I  Cor. 
vii,  1).  "for  I  would  that  all  men  were  even  as  I  myself" 

(St.  Paul  was  a  bachelor).  "I  say  therefore  to  the  unmarried  and 
widows,  it  is  good  for  them  if  they  abide  even  as  I"  (I  Cor.  vii, 
7,8). 

Through  such  teachings  of  the  early  church,  celibacy  (mis- 
called "chastity")  was  exalted  almost  to  a  (or  the)  cardinal  vir- 
tue and  it  was  even  held  that  those  who  married  could  not  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

The  Council  of  Gangra,  in  363  A.D.,  anathematized  those  who 
asserted  that  marriage  was  a  sin;  trying  to  stem  this  unnatural 
asceticism  of  the  early  church. 

Some  of  the  monastic  orders  were  great  missionary  bodies 
and  did  incalculable  good  in  converting  many  heathen  peoples, 
and  popes  and  other  ecclesiastical  authorities  exerted  all  their 
influence  to  correct  any  abuses  that  occasionally  crept  in. 

Even  in  heathen  (pre-Christian)  times  there  were  priests 
who  held  such  ascetic  views;  in  some  temples,  even,  it  was  the 
rule  that  the  priests  should  be  emasculated.  Celibacy  of  the 
priesthood  was  common  in  Buddhist  lands,  and  was  early  adopted 
by  the  Catholic  church;  in  the  primitive  Christian  church  the 
bishops  had  to  be  married  men:  "A  bishop  then  must  be  blame- 
less, the  husband  of  one  wife,  vigilant,  sober,  of  good  behavior, 
given  to  hospitality,"  etc.  (I  Tim.  iii,  2).  These  laws  of  the 
church  were  afterwards  changed,  not  by  any  additional  revelation, 


SEX    AXD    SEX    WORSHIP  211 

but  by  the  decrees  of  synod  meetings,  until  now  the  celibacy  of 
the  priesthood  is  a  firmly  established  policy  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  in  both  the  Greek  and  the  Roman  branches. 

The  agitation  of  the  question  of  celibacy  versus  married  life 
gave  rise  to  many  aberrations  of  thought  and  action;  thus,  the 
Adamites  were  a  sect  which  existed  about  the  II  Century;  they 
claimed  to  have  regained  the  condition  of  Adam's  innocence  be- 
fore the  fall  and  they  lived  in  absolute  sexual  lawlessness.  The 
sect  died  out  soon,  but  it  was  resuscitated  under  the  name  of 
"Picards"  in  Bohemia,  about  1300  A.D.,  at  which  time  they  lived 
in  a  state  of  nudity  and  held  all  their  wives  in  common.  Such  ex- 
cesses led  to  the  opposite  extremes,  of  course,  and  there  were 
many  who  swore  off  all  sexual  enjoyments,  even  going  so  far  as 
to  follow  the  advice  of  Jesus:  "If  thy  right  eye  offend  thee,  pluck 
it  out  *  *  *  and  if  thy  right  hand  offend  thee,  cut  it  off 
for  it  is  profitable  for  thee  that  one  of  thy  members  should  per- 
ish, and  not  that  thy  whole  body  should  be  cast  into  hell." 

The  Skopsi  of  Russia  began  about  1757  A.D.  ;  they  emascu- 
lated themselves  and  practiced  flagellation.  The  order  thrived 
in  spite  of  much  persecution  from  the  authorities.  In  1815  the 
prioress  of  a  flagellant  society  introduced  the  practice  among 
women,  and  girls  and  young  women  allowed  themselves  to  be 
spayed  (ovaries  cut  out)  and  to  have  their  breasts  cut  off,  so  as  to 
be  less  able  to  excite  sexual  desire  in  the  men.  The  sect  thrived, 
and  while  it  is  not  accurately  known  how  many  have  been  muti- 
lated, it  has  been  stated  that  the  sect  numbers  about  150,000 
members. 

In  males  there  are  two  methods,  cutting  out  the  testicles,  or 
total  extirpation  of  penis  and  scrotum;  these  are  removed  with 
cutting  implements  and  the  bleeding  is  checked  with  a  rodhot 
iron.  This  is  called  the  " baptism  by  fire."  Occasionally  the 
parts  are  removed  by  burning  them  off  with  a  redhot  iron  loop. 

In  women  the  operations  are  varied:  cutting  off  or  burning 
off  one  or  both  nipples;  amputating  one  or  both  breasts;  cutting 
out  the  labia  minor  a  with  the  clitoris  or  the  clitoris  alone ;  or  the 
extirpation  as  far  as  possible  of  the  entire  external  genitals,  labia 
majora,  labia  minora  and  clitoris;  also,  the  extirpation  of  the 
ovaries  (spaying).  In  addition,  various  marks  are  branded  on 
the  body  with  hot  irons,  mainly  crosses. 

Their  "Lord's  Supper"  consists  in  cutting  off  the  breast  of 


212  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

a  young  woman  initiate,  and  cutting  the  gland  into  small  bits 
which  are  distributed  among  those  present,  and  eaten  by  them. 
They  then  place  the  newly  initiated  member  on  a  throne  and 
dance  around  her  until  they  fall  senseless  in  convulsions. 

Jesus  said  to  his  disciples:  ''There  are  some  eunuchs  which 
were  so  born  from  their  mother's  womb;  and  there  are  some 
eunuchs  which  were  made  eunuchs  of  men ;  and  there  be  eunuchs, 
which  have  made  themselves  eunuchs  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven's 
sake"  (Matt,  xix,  12).  We  have  just  learned  something  about  a 
sect  who  have  "made  themselves  eunuchs  for  the  kingdom  of 
heaven's  sake,"  as  they  imagine.  The  "eunuchs  which  were 
made  of  men"  are  mainly  castrated  slaves,  in  Oriental  lands,  Avho 
are  much  used  as  attendants  and  guardians  of  the  women  in  the 
harems.  The  word  is  from  the  Greek  eunouchos,  meaning  one  who 
guards  the  bed.  God  forbade  the  Jews  to  make  eunuchs,  but 
nearly  all  other  nations  have  made  them. 

The  slave  raiders  in  Africa  make  some,  although  the  industry 
is  said  to  be  mostly  practiced  in  Coptic  monasteries ;  boy  slaves 
of  about  six  to  ten  years  old  are  bought  by  the  monks  and  the 
operation  is  done  by  firmly  grasping  the  penis  and  scrotum,  and 
pulling  them  away  from  the  body ;  then  the  whole  appendages  are 
cut  off  with  a  long  sharp  knife;  the  hemorrhage  is  stopped  with 
a  sponge  at  the  end  of  a  stick,  the  sponge  having  been  dipped  into 
boiling  oil.  A  cloth  with  some  soothing  ointment  or  oil  is  placed 
over  the  parts,  and  the  boy  is  kept  immobile  for  a  few  days  by 
standing  him  in  a  pit,  with  his  hands  tied  behind  him,  and  the 
pit  filled  in  with  sand  to  the  boy's  shoulders.  About  one  out  of 
four  operated  on  survives;  therefore  the  fourth  one  must  make 
up  in  price  for  the  loss  of  the  others  besides  paying  a  profit  on 
the  business.  These  slaves  are  highly  prized  in  the  Orient. 

Among  the  ancients,  in  Greece  and  Rome  for  instance,  these 
slaves  were  called  "hermaphrodites;"  they  were  especially  val- 
ued as  men- whores  and  were  used  for  pederastic  coition  (coitus 
in  ano}.  It  is  said  that  Philip  of  Macedonia  carried  with  him  on 
his  war  expeditions  eight  hundred  eunuchs  for  the  use  of  himself 
and  his  friends. 

In  Europe  the  castrating  of  boy  slaves  has  been  considered  a 
crime  for  many  centuries;  except  that  in  Rome  castrates  were 
used  for  the  choirs  in  the  Sistine  Chapel.  The  making  castrates 
to  be  "soprani"  or  "castrati"  in  this  choir  was  regularly  prac- 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  213 

ticed,  of  course  with  all  possible  safeguards  as  to  the  life  of  tho 
victim,  until  it  was  forbidden  by  Pope  Leo  XIII  in  the  year  1880. 
It  is  also  said  that  some  of  these  castrati  later  on  became 
some  of  the  celebrated  tenors  of  the  operatic  stage. 

Gratification  of  the  Senses 

"Live  joyfully  with  the  wife  whom  thou  lovest — for  that  is 
thy  portion  in  this  life—  '  (Eccl.  ix,  9),  said  Solomon,  and  he 
gave  us  a  glowing  direction  in  his  Song  of  Songs  how  to  rejoice 
with  a  wife.* 

Vulgar  people  think  that  sexual  gratification  consists  merely 
or  even  mainly  in  coition ;  but  this  is  placing  a  very  low  estimate 
on  the  tenderest  and  sweetest  relationship  in  life;  this  is  but  the 
lowest  element  in  the  psychology  of  love,  and  while  necessary  to 
a  complete  union  of  the  sexes,  and  necessary  for  the  God-ordained 
purpose  of  love — procreation,  the  enjoyment  produced  by  the 
gratification  of  other  senses  forms  a  nobler  and  more  spiritual 
sexual  companionship.  Sexual  pleasure,  to  be  complete,  demands 
that  all  the  senses  be  gratified;  each  sense  is  to  contribute  its 
share  to  the  total  pleasure;  "Be  thou  ravished"— says  the  Bible. 

Sense  of  Smell 

Perfumery  is  the  art  of  manipulating  and  combining  odorifer- 
ous substances  for  the  gratification  of  the  sense  of  smell. 

When  Solomon  (Prov.  v,  18-19)  said:  "Kejoice  with  the  wife 
of  thy  youth.  *  *  *  Let  her  breasts  satisfy  thoe  at  all  times; 
and  be  thou  ravished  always  with  her  love,"  he  implied  that  she 
should  please  all  Ms  senses,  and  that  he  should  be  pleased  with 
the  odors  of  her  body,  as  well  as  with  all  the  other  features  that 
make  a  wife,  or  woman,  attractive  (Fig.  70). 

A  woman's  toilet  is  devoted  to  making  herself  attractive  to 
men;  both  consciously  and  instinctively  this  is  aimed  at  by  a 
refined  woman. 

The  Book  of  Judith,  in  the  Apocrypha  (x,  3  ft  scq.)  tell 
that  Judith,  when  she  determined  to  meet  Holof  ernes,  "pulled  off 
the  sack-cloth  which  she  had  on,  and  put  off  the  garments  of  her 
widowhood,  and  washed  her  body  all  over  with  water,  and  anointed 

•We  will  not  discuss  here  whether  this  song  is  merely  erotic  poetry  or  J^'.1'^  J^^  r,in™ 
by   Solomon;   even   if   it  is   only   a   pastoral   song  01    youthful   and   conjugal 
matter  who  wrote  it. 


214  SEX  AND  SEX  WORSHIP 

herself  with  precious  ointment,  and  braided  the  hair  of  her  head 
and  put  a  tiara  upon  it,  and  put  on  her  garments  of  gladness 
wherewith  she  was  clad  during  the  life  of  Manasses,  her  husband. 

"And  she  put  sandals  on  her  feet,  and  put  about  her  her 
bracelets  and  her  chains  and  her  rings,  her  ear  rings  and  all  her 
ornaments,  and  decked  herself  bravely  to  allure  the  eyes  of  all 
men  that  should  see  her." 

The  "Eternal  Feminine"  is  still  the  same,  wherever  there  is 
a  woman;  and  in  every  nation  and  clime  she  still  seeks  to  be 
pleasing  to  men  (Fig  71). 

The  desire  of  a  man  for  a  woman  may  become  excited  by 
many  charms  of  her  body  or  her  manner.  No  doubt  the  most  im- 
portant of  these  is  her  beauty. 


Fig.  70. — "Among  Roses,"  from  painting  by  Duran. 

"Beauty  is  but  the  bait,  which,  with  delight, 
Doth  man  ensnare  for  to  enlarge  his  kind," 

said  the  poet  Spenser,  three  hundred  years  ago.  In  these  modern 
times  we  must  judge  the  beauty  of  a  woman  largely  by  her  face, 
neck,  shoulders,  back  and  arms,  which  society  permits  to  be  shown 
quite  freely,  and  by  the  gracefulness  of  her  carriage. 

Quite  recently  a  self-constituted  body  of  censors  deplored  the 
relapse  of  our  civilization  to  Paganism,  and  they  quoted  the  dress 
of  our  women  as  an  example  of  such  a  relapse.  There  was  not, 
within  the  last  few  hundred  years,  a  time  when  the  dress  of  women 
was  so  charming  as  it  is  at  the  present  time,  because  it  not  only 
properly  covers  the  body,  but  also  discreetly  displays  the  perfec- 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  215 

tion  of  its  proportions.  The  female  body  was  made  for  the  ad- 
miration and  adoration  of  men,  and  its  display,  in  the  ball-room 
or  at  the  bathing  beach,  or  in  the  art  photos  so  much  in  vogue 
at  present,  is  not  only  proper  but  is  conducive  to  a  better  morality 
than  when  it  was  hidden  under  clothing  that  did  not  allow  anyone 
to  judge  of  the  perfection  of  the  woman's  form. 

The  claim  that  civilization  tends  towards  degeneracy  is  not 
true,  for  while  some  weak-minded  men  can  not  stand  the  strain, 
and  become  degenerate,  yet  the  great  mass  of  humankind  has  been 
uplifted  and  made  better. 

It  is  with  civilization  as  with  our  modes  of  lighting  our  cities; 


Fig.  71. — "The  Kiss,"  by  Rodin. 

the  more  brilliant  the  illumination  the  more  dense  the  shadows 
by  contrast;  yet  only  apparently  so,  for  they  look  darker  than 
they  really  are  because  we  just  looked  at  the  intenser  light.  In 
reality  the  shadows  are  far  more  light  than  when  we  used  dimmer 
illumination,  or  no  lights  at  all.  So  the  dark  spots  on  our  civiliza- 
tion appear  gloomier,  because  in  the  main  civilization  has  made 
life  in  general  brighter  and  better. 

Modern  customs  and  costumes  are  fairly  liberal  in  allowing 
men  to  judge  of  the  attractiveness  of  women;  the  thin  sleeves 


216 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


which  show  the  arms,  the  lowcut  dresses  which  display  the 
bosoms,  the  short  skirts  which  allow  the  feet  and  the  legs  to  be 
seen,  even  up  to  the  bend  of  the  knees  when  women  enter  the 
street-cars,  are  so  frequently  to  be  seen  that  they  hardly  attract 
attention.  The  thin  and  almost  diaphanous  skirts  are  not  quite 
so  common,  yet  fairly  often  to  be  seen  when  women  walk  between 
us  and  the  bright  sun. 

But  the  swimming  races  in  the  rivers,  the  public  bathing 
places,  the  pageants  in  the  parks  (Fig.  72),  the  illustrations  in 
the  supplements  of  our  Sunday  papers,  bathing  scenes  in  the 
"movies,"  etc.,  the  fashion  plates  in  the  magazines,  the  models  in 


Fig.  72. — Dancing  at  a  pageant  in  Forest     Fig.   73. — Distribution   of  nerves   in   the 
Park,  St.  Louis,  1918.  nose. 

the  show-windows  of  the  stores,  the  advertisements  of  underwear, 
corsets,  hosiery,  etc.,  and  the  pictures  of  actresses,  all  contribute 
to  the  fact  that  man  no  longer  looks  at  a  woman  as  "fearfully 
and  wonderfully  made,"  for  he  has  become  almost  as  familiar  with 
the  construction  of  her  wardrobe  as  if  he  had  seen  her  put  it  on, 
piece  after  piece,  beginning  with  nothing. 

While  we  are  privileged  to  see  the  beauty  of  woman  by  her 
present  modes  of  dressing,  we  are  also  influenced  greatly  by  her 
efforts  to  make  herself  attractive  in  other  ways,  as  for  instance, 
by  the  perfume  she  uses. 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  was  not  alone    in    expressing    the 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  217 

opinion  that  physical  and  intellectual  qualities  do  not  exert  greater 
influence  on  sex-affinity  than  that  exerted  through  the  olfactory 
organs. 

Cadet-Devaux,  in  Revue  Encyclopedique,  considers  the  exhala- 
tions of  the  female  the  most  important  sexual  attraction.  And 
Shakspeare  placed  the  attraction  of  odor  on  a  level  with  that  of 
sight. 

An  artist  can  represent  most  of  the  attractive  features  of  the 
woman,  such  as  the  glory  of  her  hair,  her  wonderful  complexion 
and  texture  of  skin,  the  soulful  eyes,  the  luscious  lips,  her  volup- 
tuous beauty  of  bosom  and  body,  and  the  comely  roundness  and 
plumpness  of  her  limbs,  but  one  of  the  most  delightful  features, 
the  odor  of  her  body,  can  not  be  represented  in  statuary,  painting 
or  photography. 

The  artist  is  therefore  compelled  to  content  himself  with 
merely  suggesting  it  in  some  way,  as  by  accompanying  the  por- 
trayal of  woman  with  flowers;  or  by  scenes  of  a  woman's  toilet 
or  bath,  suggesting  both  exquisite  cleanliness  and  therefore  also 
delicate  body  odors. 

All  statuary  or  paintings  of  women  bathing  may  be  consid- 
ered as  attempts  to  suggest,  if  not  to  represent,  the  natural  per- 
fume of  a  woman's  body. 

There  is  much  that  is  mysterious  about  perfumes  or  odors, 
but  it  is  certain  that  our  sense  of  smell  takes  cognizance  of  invis- 
ible, impalpable  and  imponderable  particles  of  matter  that  cause 
the  odors.  The  illustration  (Fig.  73)  shows  the  distribution  of 
the  nerves  of  smell  in  the  lining  membranes  of  the  nose. 

The  olfactory  nerve  is  so  intimately  connected  with  the  brain, 
that  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  the  celebrated  physiologist,  stated 
that  it  is  not  a  nerve  at  all,  but  a  part  of  the  brain  in  intimate  con- 
nection with  the  anterior  lobes. 

The  particles  which  act  on  these  nerves  are  so  small  that  sci- 
ence has  not  enabled  us  to  see,  measure  or  weigh  them,  or  even 
to  estimate  their  size;  they  reach  the  sensitive  nerves  in  the  nose 
and  induce  in  them  a  kind  of  vibration  which  is  called  a  perfume 
or  aroma  when  it  is  pleasant,  a  scent  when  it  is  indifferent,  or  a 
stench  when  it  is  unpleasant;  with,  of  course,  a  great  many  in- 
different odors  that  are  neither  pleasant  nor  unpleasant. 

The  sensitiveness  of  the  nerves  of  smell  may  be  realized  from 


218 


the  fact  that  one  part  of  sulphuretted  hydrogen  gas  in  one  million 
parts  of  air  can  be  readily  recognized  by  smell. 

The  word  "perfume"  is  derived  from  the  Latin  words  "per 
fumum,"  meaning  "by  smoke,"  or  "by  fumes."  The  very  word' 
perfumery  is  an  evidence  that  our  modern  use  of  perfumery  is 
but  an  evolution  from  the  original  use  of  incense  and  burnt 
offerings. 

The  use  of  incense  consists  in  the  slow  combustion  of  odor- 
iferous substances  by  fire,  so  that  the  aromatic  particles  are 
driven  off  by  a  sort  of  distillation  similar  to  sublimation;  a 


Fig.  74. — "An  Offering  to  Minerva,"  from  a  painting. 

process  that  most  people  probably  have  seen  in  a  church  at  some 
time  or  other.. 

The  use  of  incense  dates  back  for  thousands  of  years,  to  the 
most  remote  antiquity. 

Perfume  for  the  Gods 

In  ancient  Eome  it  was  customary  to  make  an  offering  of 
incense  to  the  Lares,  the  spirits  of  the  ancestors,  daily;  also,  to 
make  an  offering  to  the  Penates,  always  two  divinities  who  pre- 
sided over  the  kitchen  and  the  store-rooms  of  food;  this  latter 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  219 

offering  was  a  burnt  offering  of  a  small  portion  of  the  food  pre- 
pared for  the  day,  the  offering  being  somewhat  in  the  nature  of 
our  saying  grace  before  eating. 

Burnt  offerings  were  offered  to  the  deities  in  very  early 
times;  it  was  supposed  that  the  gods  were  delighted  with  certain 
odors,  and  these  were  produced  by  burning  certain  spices  and 
resins  on  an  altar,  so  that  the  smoke  rising  heavenward  might 
carry  with  it  the  odor  for  the  gods  (Fig.  74).  Or  they  were  placed 
in  thuribles,  censers  or  vessels  in  which  glowing  charcoal  is  placed 
and  then  swung  by  the  priest,  so  as  to  keep  up  enough  draft  to 
keep  the  charcoal  glowing;  the  incense  is  then  sprinkled  on  this 
coal.  This  is  the  method  of  using  incense  in  our  churches,  just 
as  it  was  used  in  ancient  times  in  heathen  temples. 

Homer  taught  that  gods  and  kings  are  best  disposed  favorably 
through  offerings  or  gifts.  A  prayer  or  request  to  a  god  was 
usually  accompanied  by  some  offering  that  savored  a  little  of 
bribery;  or  wrhen  the  request  was  made,  a  vow  was  also  made  to 
do  certain  things  in  case  the  prayer  was  granted. 

It  was  thought  that  gods  experienced  a  physical  pleasure 
from  the  offered  sacrifice,  whatever  it  was.  Nearly  all  ancient 
people  imagined  their  gods  to  reside  in  certain  places  that  were 
holy  to  them.  In  Greece,  for  instance,  Jupiter  designated  these 
places  by  throwing  his  bolts  at  them  (striking  them  with  light- 
ning) and  such  places  were  fenced  in  and  considered  sacred  to 
Jove.  Or  the  gods  were  supposed  to  reside  in  certain  stones 
(called  Beth-el,  or  "house  of  God"  in  the  Bible)  or  in  a  sacred  tree 
or  pole  (called  asliera,  or  in  the  Bible — "grove"). 

The  offering  of  a  sacrifice  consisted  in  pouring  libations  of 
wine,  or  milk,  or  oil,  or  the  blood  of  sacrificial  animals  over  the 
holy  places,  the  sacred  stone,  or  on  the  ground  about  the  sacred 
tree;  and  the  carcass  of  the  victim  was  either  left  on  the  ground, 
where  it  usually  was  consumed  by  wild  animals,  and  the  disap- 
pearance was  ascribed  to  the  gods;  or  the  victim  was  buried  near 
or  under  the  sacred  place. 

In  ancient  times  such  altars  were  made  of  unhewn  stones, 
preferably  a  meteoric  stone  if  it  could  be  found.  In  the  20th  chap- 
ter of  Exodus,  v.  25,  God  is  represented  as  saying  to  Israel,  "if 
thou  wilt  make  me  an  altar  of  stone,  thou  shalt  not  build  it  of 
hewn  stone,  for  if  thou  lift  up  thy  tool  upon  it,  thou  hast  pol- 
luted it." 


220  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

Later  on,  it  was  believed  that  the  gods  were  not  able  to  use 
anything  that  was  not  purified  and  etherialized  by  burning  it  in 
fire  ("by  smoke"  or  "per  fumum")  and  that  the  gods  could  ap- 
preciate an  offering  only  by  the  sense  of  smell,  of  odors  that 
ascended  to  them  in  heaven. 

The  original  idea  was  to  offer  food  to  the  gods,  and  either  the 
whole  of  the  animal  or  only  certain  parts  were  burned  on  the 
altars.  Thus,  it  is  believed  that  in  many  sacrifices  only  the  pel- 
vis with  the  sexual  parts,  or  perhaps  only  the  one  bone  of  the 
pelvis,  the  sacrum,  with  the  attached  sexual  parts  was  an  offering 
to  the  gods,  and  that  the  name  of  the  bone,  the  "sacred  bone," 
was  derived  from  its  use  in  burnt  offerings. 

The  parts  of  the  sacrificial  animal  not  offered  as  a  burnt  of- 
fering to  the  gods  was  eaten  by  the  priests  or  the  worshippers. 

Among  some  people  only  the  blood  was  offered  as  a  sacrifice 
(as  among  the  Aztecs)  or  the  fat  and  the  thighs  (os  sacrum?}  or 
the  blood,  fat  and  kidneys. 

God  commanded  the  Jews  (Levit.  ii,  13),  "and  every  obla- 
tion of  thy  meat-offering  shalt  thou  season  with  salt;  neither 
shalt  thou  suffer  the  salt  of  the  covenant  of  thy  God  to  be  lack- 
ing from  thy  meat-offerings;  with  all  thine  offerings  thou  shalt 
offer  salt." 

Salt  is  also  an  ingredient  of  holy  water  in  the  church. 

The  parts  ordered  to  be  offered  to  God  were  forbidden  to  the 
Jews  to  eat  (Lev.  vii,  26,  Lev.  iii,  17). 

In  India  the  sacrifice  was  accompanied  by  libations  of  wine, 
or  soma. 

Certain  animals  could  not  be  offered  because  they  were  "un- 
clean;" others  not,  because  they  were  sacred,  as  the  cow  to  Isis, 
in  Egypt,  or  the  goat  to  Athena,  in  Greece. 

Among  the  Greeks  the  worship  of  Athena  (Fig.  75)  was  in- 
troduced by  the  Aegidae,  or  "goat-clan,"  and  Athena  was  repre- 
sented as  dressed  in  an  aegis  or  goat  skin,  like  Zeus.  Athena 
therefore  was  of  the  goat-clan  (see  Totemism,  p.  128),  and  as  in 
all  totem  tribes  who  can  not  eat  their  totem  (be  it  animal  or  veg- 
etable), so  Athena  could  not  eat  her  totem  or  a  member  of  her 
own  clan,  that  of  the  goat;  to  have  offered  goat  sacrifices  to  her 
would  have  been  equivalent  to  cannibalism. 

The  book  of  Leviticus  is  full  of  directions  of  what  animals  to 
offer  as  sacrifices;  as  burnt  offerings,  cattle  (a  male  without  a 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  221 

blemish),  sheep  or  goats  (a  male  without  a  blemish),  fowls  (turtle- 
doves or  young  pigeons) ;  or  fine  flour,  oil,  frankincense,  unleav- 
ened cakes,  fruits;  but  leaven  (yeast)  or  honey  wore  forbidden  to 
be  used  as  ingredients  of  offerings. 

But  for  peace-offerings  animals  of  the  herds  or  flocks,  either 
male  or  female  (without  blemish)  were  permitted. 

Human  sacrifices  were  common  among  Semitic  nations,  in- 
cluding the  Jews ;  thus,  Abraham  was  commanded  to  offer  his  son 
Isaac,  but  W7hen  he  w7as  about  to  do  so,  an  angel  interfered  and 
ordered  him  to  substitute  a  ram  (Gen.  ch.  xxii,  1-13). 

A  peculiar  form  of  sacrifice  consisted  in  cutting  off  the  pre- 


Fig.  75.— Burning  incense  before  Athena.  Interior  of  the  Parthenon  restored. 

puce,  or  foreskin  of  the  penis;  this  was  done  by  different  nations, 
but  it  was  especially  enjoined  on  the  Jews  as  a  religious  covenant 
with  God.  It  was  a  sacrifice  of  a  small  part  of  the  body  that  the 
balance  might  be  saved,  for  dire  punishment  was  threatened 
against  those  who  w^ere  not  circumcised  (Gen.  xvii,  1 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  what  are  now  considered  purel; 
vices,  are  survivals  of  religious  ceremonies  of  former  days 
olden  times,  for  instance,  the  priest  had  to  take  the  penis  he  cii 
cumcised  in  his  mouth  and  suck  it,  as  a  part  of  the  ritual, 
was  forbidden  in  the  days  of  Napoleon,  because  syphili: 
veyed  by  the  mucous  patches  on  the  lips  of  some  of  the  operators. 


222  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

Originally  circumcision  was  probably  a  sacrifice  to  the  Power 
of  Procreation,  which  was  supposed  to  reside  in  the  penis,  or  to 
be  symbolized  by  the  penis. 

Orthodox  Jews  still  practice  circumcision  as  a  religious  rite, 
it  having  the  place  that  baptism  of  the  Christians  holds. 

Also,  the  Bible  tells  us  that  Jephthah  made  a  vow  to  the  Lord : 
'  *  if  thou  shalt  without  fail  deliver  the  children  of  Ammon  into  my 
hands,  then  it  shall  be,  that  whatsoever  cometh  forth  of  the  doors 
of  my  house  to  meet  me,  *  shall  surely  be  the  Lord's  and 

I  will  offer  it  up  for  a  burnt-offering"  (Judges  xi,  30  et  seq.). 

And  when  he  came  back,  his  daughter  met  him,  and  *  *  * 
"Jephthah  did  with  her  according  to  his  vow  which  he  had  vowed." 
Writers  have  tried  to  explain  away  the  hideousness  of  this 
story  by  saying  that  Jephthah  dedicated  her  to  the  service  of  God ; 
but  there  is  no  use  to  apologize  for  the  statements  in  the  Bible ; — 
"I  will  offer  it  up  for  a  burnt-offering" — and — "Jephthah  did 
with  her  according  to  his  vow"  are  statements  too  unequivocal 
to  admit  a  doubt  of  his  having  slaughtered  her  and  burnt  her  body 
as  an  offering  to  God  Jehovah  (provided  we  accept  all  that  is  in 
the  Bible  as  truth). 

And  stress  is  laid  on  the  fact  that  she  was  a  virgin,  therefore 
an  exceptionally  acceptable  sacrifice. 

During  the  idolatry  of  the  Jews,  they  offered  their  children 
as  burnt  offerings  to  Molech,  the  deity  of  the  Philistines.  These 
children  were  offered  like  any  other  offerings,  slaughtered,  cut 
up  and  burnt;  they  were  not  burned  alive.  The  latter  practice, 
however,  was  prevalent  at  one  time  in  Carthage;  and  every  now 
and  then  in  our  own  communities  some  religious  fanatic  imagines 
he  has  been  commanded  by  the  Lord  to  sacrifice  one  of  his  chil- 
dren, and  either  attempts  to  do  so,  or  succeeds  in  doing  so ;  only, 
instead  of  it  being  regarded  as  an  act  approved  by  God,  as  in 
Abraham's  case,  we  now  call  such  a  person  insane  and  lock 
him  up. 

Among  the  Phoenicians  human  sacrifices  were  offered  on 
great  occasions,  and  usually  a  first-born  and  only  son  was  chosen 
for  the  purpose.  This  was  because  an  offering  was  supposed  to 
be  acceptable  to  a  god  in  proportion  as  it  was  valued  by  the  wor- 
shippers. It  was  thought  that  deities  delighted  in  and  demanded 
the  costliest  and  holiest  gifts,  and  this  led  to  the  dedication  of 
virgins  as  gifts  to  temples  of  Astarte  to  become  temple  attendants 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP  223 

(or  temple  prostitutes)  in  the  groves  of  this  goddess,  and  some- 
times virgins  or  matrons  (wives)  were  given,  to  be  sacrificial 
offerings. 

In  later  times  these  human  sacrifices  were  only  figuratively 
carried  out;  for  instance,  women  cut  off  and  burnt  their  hair  as 
an  offering,  instead  of  being  themselves  the  sacrificial  victims. 

In  a  similar  manner  in  ancient  Egypt,  when  the  inundation 
of  the  Nile  occurred  (the  Nile  was  a  divinity)  a  maiden  was 
thrown  into  the  Nile  as  a  sacrificial  offering;  later  on,  when 
human  sacrifices  were  no  longer  required,  a  waxen  image  of  a 


Fig.  76. — "Cain  Kills  Abel,"  from  Dore's  Bible  illustrations. 

maiden  was  thrown  into  the  flood;  at  present,  the  water  is  con- 
trolled by  dams  and  locks.  When  it  is  to  bo  allowed  to  flow  out 
over  the  land,  a  pillar  of  mud  is  erected  in  front  of  the  floodgate, 
which  is  called  "the  bride  of  the  Nile"  and  serves  in  place  of 
the  living  human  victim  offered  by  the  ancients. 

Cain  killed  Abel  because  the  smoke  of  the  hitter's  offering 
ascended  straighter  to  heaven  than  that  of  his  own,  or  what  was 
the  same  thing  to  Cain,  because  Abel's  sacrifice  was  more  ac- 
ceptable to  God  than  his  own  (Fig.  70). 

"Cain  brought  of  the  fruit  of  the  ground  an  offering  unto 
the  Lord  (Gen.  iv,  3), 


224 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


''And  Abel,  he  also  brought  of  the  firstlings  of  his  flock,  and 
of  the  fat  thereof.  And  the  Lord  had  respect  unto  Abel,  and  to 
his  offering, 

"But  unto  Cain  and  to  his  offering  he  had  not  respect" 
(Gen.  iv,  4,  5). 

That  God  might  not  respect  their  offerings  seems  to  have 
been  much  dreaded  by  the  ancient  Jews,  for  God  threatens  (Lev. 
xxvi,  31) :  "And  I  will  make  your  cities  waste  and  bring  your 
sanctuaries  into  desolation,  and  I  will  not  smell  the  savour  of  your 
sweet  odors." 

Among  ancient  people  the  idea  here  stated  seemed  to  be  gen- 
erally accepted  that  the  gods  preferred  bloody  sacrifices,  because 
they  delighted  in  the  smell  of  blood ;  and  since  such  offerings  were 
acceptable  in  proportion  as  they  were  valuable  to  the  worship- 


Fig.  77. — Achilles  sacrificing  to  the  manes  of  Patrocles;   from  the  Fancois  tomb,  near 

Vulei. 

pers,  human  offerings,  the  offerings  of  firstborn  sons  or  of  virgin 
daughters  were  the  holiest. 

After  all,  the  idea  that  the  gods  preferred  virgins  was  per- 
fectly natural ;  all  mankind  has  a  special  regard  for  virgins.  And 
if  any  of  us  were  invited  to  a  feast,  such  as  a  sacrifice  was  sup- 
posed to  be  for  the  gods,  we  would  be  like  the  gods  in  appre- 
ciating tender  "chickens."  Among  the  cannibals  of  Central 
Africa,  tender  young  women,  properly  fricasseed,  are  still  con- 
sidered a  special  treat  and  delicacy. 

Among  the  ancient  Greeks  at  one  time  human  offerings  were 
not  unusual.  This  (Fig.  77)  represents  Achilles  sacrificing  to 
the  shade  of  his  ancestor  Patrocles  at  the  siege  of  Troy  (after 
sculptures  in  an  old  Grecian  tomb). 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP 


225 


Agamemnon  had  in  some  way  offended  the  goddess  Artemis, 
who  demanded  that  he  offer  his  daughter  Iphigcneia  in  expiation. 
When  he  was  about  to  sacrifice  Iphigeneia,  the  goddess  relented 
and  ordered  a  hind  to  be  substituted  for  Iphigeneia  (the  same 
story  as  that  of  Abraham  offering  Isaac),  but  she  took  Iphigeneia 
and  made  her  a  priestess  in  a  temple  of  Artemis.  According  to 
some  versions  of  this  story,  Iphigeneia  was  actually  sacrificed. 

Polyxena  was  a  daughter  of  Priam,  old  Greek  legends  say. 
Priam  was  the  last  king  of  Troy  and  Hecuba  was  the  mother  of 
Polyxena.  She  had  been  betrothed  to  Achilles,  and  after  the 


Fig.  78. — "The  Rape  of  Polyxena,"  by  Fedi;  now  in  Florence,  Italy. 

destruction  of  Troy  and  the  death  of  Achilles,  the  ghost  of  -the  lat- 
ter appeared  to  the  Greeks  and  demanded  of  them  the  sacrifice  of 
Polyxena.  The  Greeks  consented  and  Neoptolemus,  the  son  of 
Achilles,  seized  and  sacrificed  Polyxena  on  his  father's  grave 
(Fig.  78). 

Similar  was  the  story  of  the  maidens  offered  to  the  Minotaur. 

In  early  times  the  Greeks  also  made  human  sacrifices  to 
Artemis  (the  moon). 

In  Rome  sacrifices  were  offered  to  various  deities;  male  an- 
imals to  gods  and  female  animals  to  goddesses.  The  Penates 


226 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


were  the  Roman  gods  of  the  storehouse  of  food,  the  larder  or 
cupboard.  The  family  hearth  was  their  altar,  on  which  as  al- 
ready stated,  a  portion  of  the  daily  food  was  offered  to  them. 
They  were  always  accompanied  by  the  Lares  or  ancestral  gods, 
who  remained  as  household  deities;  to  them  also  offerings  of 
food  were  made. 

The  serving  of  food  and  drink  to  household  spirits  prevailed 
in  Russia,  Germany,  Lapland,  Servia,  etc.  In  Russia,  or  rather 
in  Siberia,  this  took  a  peculiar  form.  The  Russians  who  had  been 
banished  to  Siberia  believed  (or  at  least  pretended  to  believe) 
that  ancestral  spirits  visited  them  in  their  exile,  and  they  set 
food  outside  of  their  windows  every  evening  for  them.  In  reality, 


Fig.  79. — A  Druidic  human  sacrifice. 

this  food  was  intended  for  prisoners  who  had  escaped  from  the 
mines,  and  who  dared  not  come  in  daytime  to  beg  food,  and  to 
whom  the  people  would  not  have  dared  to  give  food.  The  offer- 
ings for  their  "ancestral  visitors"  outside  of  their  windows  were 
occasionally  accompanied  by  little  gifts  of  money  and  were  in- 
tended to  help  the  unfortunates  on  their  way  to  freedom. 

Young  maidens,  or  virgins,  were  especially  acceptable  sac- 
rifices to  the  gods,  and  were  offered  by  the  ancient  Druids  (Fig. 
79)  as  well  as  by  the  Greeks;  and  the  custom  extended  to  nearly 
all  parts  of  the  world. 

Until  quite  recently  (last  century)  a  virgin  was  sacrificed 
annually  to  Pelee,  the  female  demon  deity  of  the  volcano  Kilauea, 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


227 


by  being  thrown  from  the  edge  of  the  crater  into  the  seething  lake 
of  lava  below.  A  hair-like  substance  is  often  found  in  Hawaii 
which  is  called  "Pelee's  hair;"  it  is  a  sort  of  mineral  or  slag 
wool,  made  by  lava  being  ejected  from  the  volcano,  and  blown 
by  the  wind  into  threads. 

Prescott  tells  us  that  the  Aztecs,  in  the  times  of  the  Con- 
quest of  Mexico,  sacrificed  annually  many  thousands  of  human 
victims  to  their  blood-thirsty  God  of  War,  who  delighted  in  the 
odor  of  fresh  blood. 

This  illustration  (Fig.  80)  is  copied  from  an  old  painting  in 
a  temple  of  Mexico,  showing  the  method  of  making  these  human 
sacrifices.  Several  temple  attendants,  who  were  made  more  hide- 
ous by  painting  their  bodies  black,  seized  the  victim  and  stretched 
him  on  his  back  over  a  convex  altar  stone,  whereupon  the  priest 


Fig.  80. — Aztec  sacrifice,  from  Kingsborough  'a  Mexican  Antiquities. 

made  an  incision  and  quickly  tore  the  heart  from  the  body  and 
held  it  up  to  the  idol,  so  that  Huitzilopochtli  might  smell  the 
fragrance  of  the  warm  and  palpitating  heart  and  of  the  blood. 

The  bodies  were  then  thrown  down  among  the  worshippers, 
and  afterwards  were  roasted  and  eaten. 

"We  learn  from  the  Bible  that,  of  the  Jewish  offerings,  some 
were  completely  burned,  of  others  only  a  few  parts  were  burned 
and  the  remainder  served  as  food  for  the  temple  attendants  or 
could  be  carried  back  and  eaten  by  the  ones  who  had  made  the 
offerings;  the  blood  in  every  case,  however,  was  sprinkled  over 
the  altar  as  a  grateful  offering  to  the  nostrils  of  Jehovah,  and  the 


228  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

Jews  were  forbidden  to  eat  blood.  Aromatic  resins,  or  incense, 
and  salt  was  added  to  the  parts  that  were  burned  on  the  altars. 

The  ancient  Egyptians  filled  the  carcasses  of  their  burnt  of- 
ferings with  spices,  raisins,  etc.,  to  render  the  odor,  the  only 
part  that  ascended  to  heaven,  more  acceptable  to  the  gods.  It 
also  rendered  the  sacrificial  animals,  which  were  roasted,  not 
burned,  more  acceptable  to  the  priests  and  temple  attendants 
whose  perquisites  they  were,  and  who  feasted  on  them.  The  Egyp- 
tians also  burned  only  a  small  part  for  the  gods,  probably  the 
sacrum  with  the  sexual  parts. 

The  word  kethoreth,  used  by  the  ancient  Jews  for  incense, 
meant  " savor  of  satisfaction."  It  was  used  as  among  the  ancient 
Egyptians,  from  whom  the  Jews  obtained  many  of  their  ideas 
during  their  captivity  in  Egypt. 

The  modern  use  of  consecrated  candles,  or  of  incense,  in  our 
churches,  is  but  an  innocent  survival  of  former  more  bloody  and 
cruel  sacrifices. 

In  the  35th  verse  of  the  thirtieth  chapter  of  Exodus,  in  the 
Bible,  incense  is  also  called  a  "confection  made  after  the  art  of 
the  apothecary,"  which  modern  scholars  say  should  rather  have 
been  translated:  "a  perfume  (or  incense)  made  after  the  art  of 
the  perfumer." 

This  verse  refers  to  the  burnt  offering  incense  of  the  ancient 
Jews,  which  seems  to  have  had  a  twofold  purpose:  First,  to  ren- 
der the  actual  burnt  offering,  that  part  of  the  sacrificial  animal 
which  was  consumed  by  fire  on  the  altar,  more  acceptable  to 
the  nostrils  of  God ;  second,  to  render  it  less  offensive  to  the  wor- 
shippers in  the  temple. 

Incense  was,  and  is,  used  among  the  Hindus  in  the  same  way 
and  for  the  same  purposes  as  among  the  ancient  Jews.  The 
Hindus  formerly  used  frankincense,  but  now  they  generally  use 
benzoin. 

In  ancient  Eoman  temples  the  use  of  religious  fumigations 
was  common.  It  was  probably  continued  from  these  Pagan  prac- 
tices by  the  primitive  Christians,  although  direct  testimony  to 
this  effect  is  wanting,  for  we  find  no  mention  of  its  use  among 
the  Christians  until  about  the  fifth  century  of  our  era. 

At  present  there  is  no  fixed  rule  for  the  making  of  incense  for 
church  purposes;  it  is,  however,  recommended  that,  whenever 
possible,  frankincense  (olibanum)  shall  constitute  more  than  one- 


SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP  229 

half  of  the  mixture.  It  is  especially  recommended  that  no  in- 
ferior substance,  if  used  at  all,  shall  preponderate. 

In  Rome,  olibanum  is  used  alone;  in  other  places  benzoin, 
storax,  aloes,  cascarilla,  cinnamon,  cloves  or  musk,  or  a  combina- 
tion of  several  of  these  are  added  to  the  olibanum. 

In  the  Russian  branch  of  the  Greek  Catholic  church  the  in- 
cense consists  mainly  of  benzoin,  as  among  the  Hindus;  and  in 
the  Armenian  branch  of  the  Greek  Catholic  church  incense  is 
usually  a  mixture  of  myrrh  and  cinnamon. 

An  inscription  in  the  Valley  of  Hammamat  records  that 
Hannu  was  sent  by  the  Pharaoh  Sankharra,  about  2500  B.C.,  or 
1000  years  before  Moses,  by  the  route  of  the  Red  Sea  southward 
to  Punt  (modern  Somaliland)  on  the  eastern  coast  of  Africa,  to 
bring-  back  odoriferous  gums  to  be  used  in  the  temples  for  incense, 
and  for  embalming  the  dead.  An  inscription  in  the  temple  at 
Der-el-Bahri  shows  the  bringing  of  goods  for  Queen  Hatshep- 
sowet,  who  had  determined  to  import  incense  trees  into  Egypt,  to 
attempt  to  raise  their  own  incense  for  use  in  the  temples. 

The  native  products  obtained  from  the  Prince  of  Punt  in- 
cluded aromatic  woods,  spices,  incense,  incense  trees,  other  rare 
plants,  gold,  etc.,  for  the  temple  of  Thebes.  The  record  states  that 
an  expedition  was  sent  by  Queen  Hasop  (about  1600  B.C.)  to  bring 
incense  trees  from  Punt,  to  be  planted  in  the  gardens  connected 
with  this  temple,  with  the  intention  of  producing  incense. 

In  Stones  of  Venice  Ruskin  speaks  of  the  "  close  air  loaded 
with  a  sweet  and  peculiar  odor  associated  only  with  religious 
services,"  as  pervading  the  interior  of  the  churches.  The  in- 
fluence of  incense  in  producing  a  devotional  frame  of  mind  has 
perhaps  been  experienced  by  most  of  us. 

This  mental  disposition  is  to  a  great  extent  due  to  the  in- 
halation of  the  volatilized  terebinthinate  constituents  of  the  in- 
cense which  produces  an  obscure  yet  perceptibly  stimulant  ef- 
fect on  the  erection  center;  were  the  effect  stronger  it  would 
excite  distinct  erotic  emotions  with  erection,  but  as  it  is,  it  only 
produces  religiously  devotional  emotions,  arguing  however  the 
close  relationship  of  our  sexual  and  our  religious  passions. 

Under  the  Emperor  Constantino  the  burning  of  incense  as  a 
sacrifice  was  considered  to  be  proof  of  Paganism,  and  was  made 
a  crime  punishable  with  death. 


230  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

PERFUME  FOR  HUMANS 

So  far  we  have  spoken  of  incense  or  perfume  for  religious 
uses;  but  from  very  early  times  it  was  also  used  in  Egypt  and 
India  for  secular  purposes,  to  perfume  the  home,  the  clothing  and 
the  bodies  of  persons. 

In  other  words,  it  was  used  for  the  same  purposes  as  our 
modern  perfumes. 

The  Hottentot  women  rub  their  bodies  with  butter,  soot  and 
buchu  leaves;  the  Hawaiian  women  decorate  themselves  with 


Fig.  81. — "A  Message  to  Cleopatra,"  from  a  painting  by  Miss  Coomans. 

wreaths  and  garlands  of  odorous  flowers;  Cleopatra  (Fig.  81)  is 
identified  by  both  ancient  and  modern  writers  with  the  utmost 
luxury  in  the  use  of  perfumery  and  flowers,  and  our  modern 
women  delight  in  receiving  gifts  of  flowers  and  rare  perfumes. 

Dr.  Septimus  Piesse,  one  of  the  most  famous,  if  not  the  most 
famous  of  French  perfumers,  arranged  the  chief  odors  used  in 
perfumery  in  analogy  to  the  musical  scale,  both  bass  and  treble, 
thus  assigning  its  real  place  to  each  simple  odor  and  laying  down 
rules  for  the  proper  combination  of  odors  to  form  "harmonies" 
or  blends,  for  some  odors  conflict  with  others,  producing  discords. 

According  to  the  theories  of  Piesse,  when  a  combination  of 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


231 


odors  is  desired,  they  must  be  such  as  to  form  a  true  harmony. 
This  system  was  called  by  Piesse  the  Odophone,  or  the  Science  of 
Perfume  Harmony.  As  an  example,  Fig.  82  shows  a  proper  com- 
bination: A  Bouquet  in  the  Sub-Dominant  of  C.  Musk  (or  sim- 
ilar substances,  as  ambergris,  castor  or  civet)  are  in  perfume  what 


TonKa  Bean 


^ 

MasK 


_      Tube-    Camphor 
Pose   Rose          Jonquil 


Fig.  82. — Subdominant  chord  of  C,  after  Piesse 's  Odophone. 

Orange  'Blossom . 


f  IOC6t>CCC 

^^ 

1 

1     T^ 

d* 

1      I 

/• 

y 

m                   : 

i 

Geranium 
Sandal. 

Fig.  83. — Common  chord  of  C,  after  Piesse 's  Odophone. 

Southern, 


Tuberose. 
Violet 

Sweet  Pea 

Fig.  84. — Dominant  7th  chord  of  C,  after  Piesse 's  Odophone. 

the  pedal  notes  are  in  organ-playing,  adding  to  the  volume  and 
sonorousness  of  the  chord  although  themselves  used  only  in  sub- 
dued quantities.  They  impart  persistence  to  more  delicate  odors, 
even  when  used  so  sparingly  as  to  be  themselves  almost  imper- 
ceptible to  the  average  nose. 


232 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


Another  pleasing  combination  is  a  bouquet  in  the  Common 
Chord  of  C  (Fig.  83).  A  bouquet  in  the  Dominant  Seventh  Chord 
of  C  is  shown  in  Fig.  84.  This  musical  scale  of  the  odors  may 
be  more  or  less  subject  to  correction,  or  to  differences  of  opinion 
between  experts,  but  it  serves  as  an  illustration  of  the  variety  of 
odors,  and  it  suggests  that  a  skilled  perfumer  may  be  as  much 
an  artist  with  scents  as  the  musician  is  an  artist  with  sounds  or 
the  painter  with  colors,  and  that  it  is  only  the  master-mind  that 
produces  the  finest  of  odorous  harmonies. 

When  I  was  a  boy  I  bought  a  novel  entitled  Kalooldh;  the 
scene  was  laid  in  Africa,  most  of  which  at  that  time  was  unex- 
plored and  unknown  territory  and  for  that  reason  a  welcome  re- 
gion for  the  romancer.  In  this  book  is  described  a  concert  which 


Fig.  85. — An  Egyptian  at  his  meal,  from  plastic  models  shown  at  Louisiana  Purchase 

Exposition,  St.  Louis,  1904. 

issued  harmonies  and  chords  of  odors,  blown  out  upon  the  audi- 
ence as  the  valves  of  the  organ  wrere  opened  and  closed  by  play- 
ing on  a  keyboard  much  as  sounds  issue  from  the  pipes  of  an  or- 
dinary organ  when  air  is  blown  through  the  sounding  tubes. 

Taste  is  closely  related  to  smell;  in  food  we  have  " flavor," 
a  compound  sensation  of  both  smell  and  taste.  We  refer  to  the 
flavor  of  wine  as  the  ''bouquet"  of  the  wine. 

A  group  from  the  anthropological  exhibit  of  Egypt  (Fig.  85) 
at  the  International  Exhibition,  at  St.  Louis,  1904,  represented  a 
rich  Egyptian  being  entertained  with  music  and  dancing  by  girls 
trained  in  these  arts,  while  he  is  at  dinner.  The  group  was  mod- 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


233 


eled  after  furniture,  masks,  and  drawings  found  in  Egyptian 
tombs  of  2500  B.C. 

Lucullus,  75  B.C.,  was  renowned  for  the  luxury  of  his  entertain- 
ments ;  the  most  expensive  viands,  the  rarest  and  costliest  wines, 
fountains  of  perfumed  water,  incense,  beautiful  slave  dancing 
girls  and  musicians,  all  contributed  to  the  splendor  of  his  feasts. 
Our  modern  cabaret  entertainments  are  but  weak  imitations  of 
these  Roman  prototypes  (Fig.  86). 

The  feminine,  as  a  feature  of  feasts,  sometimes  took  on  pe- 
culiar forms ;  thus,  formerly,  and  sometimes  now,  at  Russian  wed- 
ding feasts  the  slippers  of  the  bride  are  used  as  loving  cups ;  they 


Fig.  86. — "Feast  of  Lucullus,"  at  Tusculum,  from  a  painting  by  Boulanger. 

are  filled  with  wine  and  the  guests  pass  them  around  and  drink 
from  them,  until  they  become  so  soggy  that  they  will  no  longer 
hold  wine. 

Perfumes  are  made  in  various  forms : 

Perfumes  proper: — The  fluid  preparations  intended  for  the 
handkerchief  or  for  spraying  on  the  clothing. 

Scented  Soaps:— For  the  bath;  and  so-called  " waters' 
Cologne  water,  Florida  water,  etc.),  intended  mainly  to  perfume 
the  water  used  for  washing  or  for  the  bath.     Occasionally  fas- 
tidious and  wealthy  women  perfume  their  baths  with  the  petals 
of  roses  or  violets. 

Skin  and  Hair  Preparations:— Cold  creams  for  facial  mas- 


234  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

sage;  "skin  foods;"  hair  oils,  pomades,  invigorators,  tonics,  and 
shampoos  for  the  hair. 

Perfumed  Toilet  Powders: — Starch,  orris  root,  talcum,  chalk, 
etc. 

Tooth  Powders  and  Tooth  Pastes: — Usually  also  medicated, 
to  cleanse,  disinfect,  and  preserve  the  teeth ;  sometimes  medicated 
soaps  are  used. 

Cachoux: — To  perfume  the  breath;  usually  small  pellets  made 
of  cardamom,  cinnamon,  benzoin,  and  other  aromatics;  often 
silver-coated. 

Perfume  Sachets: — Mixtures  of  powdered  vetivert,  lavender 
flowers,  sawdust  of  sandal  wood,  etc.,  to  which  vanilla,  musk, 
tonka  bean  or  coumarin,  or  sometimes  more  delicately  odorous 
substances,  as  violets,  are  added. 

Perfume  Jars: — Small  jars  filled  with  the  petals  of  odorous 
flowers,  packed  with  salt  to  prevent  decay. 

Smelling  Salts: — Pungent  substances,  as  carbonate  of  ammo- 
nium or  glacial  acetic  acid,  are  sometimes  rendered  more  pleas- 
ant by  the  addition  of  perfumes. 

Pastilles  or  Fumigating  Pastilles: — Cones  made  of  odorous 
substances  or  incense,  with  a  small  percentage  of  nitrate  of  potas- 
sium or  sodium  to  cause  them  to  smoulder  and  burn  slowly  when 
ignited.  The  Chinese  "joss  sticks"  are  frequently  used  in  our 
houses.  These  are  used  by  the  Chinese  like  incense  in  their 
temples. 

All  of  these  substances  are  used  to  render  the  odors  of  our 
homes,  more  particularly  the  persons  and  the  rooms  of  our  women, 
agreeable  to  us. 

Unlike  animals,  mankind  has  cultivated  sexual  pleasures  as 
luxuries  rather  than  for  reproduction.  Sexual  passion  in  the 
man  is  now  a  habit,  artificially  fostered,  until  man  is  practically 
always  ready  for  the  sexual  act,  without  any  of  the  stimuli  that 
are  necessary  for  animals.  The  human  male  is  always  ready— 
<( semper  paratus" — ;  he  is  stimulated  by  sight  rather  than  by 
odor.  Yet  it  is  related  of  a  recent  Sultan  of  Turkey  that  he  was 
fond  of  going  in  the  bathing  pool  with  his  odalisques,  and  after 
the  bath  he  ordered  them  to  dance  until  they  were  in  perspiration ; 
he  then  ordered  the  one  whose  perspiration  odor  appealed  most 
strongly  to  him  to  go  to  bed  with  him  for  the  night. 

It  is  unnecessary  here  to  consider  either  the  methods  of  pre- 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  'J35 

paring  perfumery,  or  the  materials  that  are  used,  except  to  say 
that  some  of  the  most  important  ingredients,  such  as  musk,  castor, 
civet,  etc.,  are  obtained  from  glands  connected  with  the  sexual 
organs  of  animals,  while  even  many  of  the  attars  or  volatile  oils 
from  flowers  have  important  bearing  on  the  sexual  functions  of 
plants. 

It  is  not  likely  to  have  been  mere  accidental  coincidence  that 
nearly  all  our  most  lasting  perfumes  contain  either  musk,  civet 
or  castor,  all  of  which  are  substances  obtained  from  glands  con- 
nected with  the  sexual  organs  of  animals. 

As  already  explained  in  the  remarks  on  Dr.  Piesse's  Odo- 
pJione,  these  substances  render  delicate  and  evanescent  odors  more 
lasting  or  permanent,  and  one  or  the  other  of  these  substances  is 
therefore  apt  to  be  in  every  perfume. 

However,  ambergris,  from  the  intestines  of  whales,  benzoin, 
and  "violet-root,"  the  root  of  Florentine  orris,  also  have  similar 
properties,  so  that  one  of  these  may  be  substituted  for  the  sub- 
stances from  the  genitals  of  animals,  or  they  may  be  added. 

Nor  should  it  be  overlooked  that  there  may  be  personal 
idiosyncrasies  respecting  perfumes,  just  as  there  are  in  other  mat- 
ters of  taste,  as  in  music,  for  example;  but  it  is  held  by  expert 
perfumers  that  personal  preference  is  not  the  only  guide,  nor 
indeed  always  a  safe  guide,  in  the  choice  of  one's  perfumes.  A 
brunette,  for  instance,  may  be  very  fond  of  violet,  and  therefore 
may  desire  to  use  violet  perfume;  but  the  fact  is,  that  our  bodies 
exhale  or  emit  certain  acids,  and  the  acid  given  off  by  a  brunette 
is  in  direct  conflict  with  the  violet  odor,  so  that  in  a  short  time  she 
will  counteract,  or  "kill"  the  violet  extract  on  her  clothing  or 
person.  A  perfume  in  which  rose  predominates  is  more  fitted 
for  the  brunette. 

Nor  may  we  neglect  the  effects  of  the  various  odors  on  the 
emotions  of  mankind.  It  is  said  that  the  odor  of  magnolia  pro- 
duces a  combative  disposition,  while  a  spirit  of  placid  and  saintly 
devotion  will  mark  the  person  who  habitually  uses  violet;  the 
odor  of  cloves  is  credited  with  inciting  to  suspicion  and  slander, 
probably  on  account  of  its  general  use  as  an  inter-act  condiment ; 
it  is  claimed  that  a  frivolous  and  irreverent  spirit  can  be  changed 
to  that  of  a  meditative  thinker  by  the  habitual  use  of  bergamot. 

We  have  learned  from  biographies  of  Schiller  that  he  could 
not  write  unless  he  had  apples  on  his  writing  desk;  vervain  de- 


236  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

velops  the  artistic  temperament;  ambergris  is  recommended  as 
a  divine  essence  upon  which  poetic  genius  thrives ;  white  rose  be- 
gets a  love  of  languorous  indolence,  and  the  famous  patchouly  will, 
sooner  or  later,  cause  the  moral  downfall  of  its  devotees.  The  es- 
sence of  verbena  is  blamed  for  exciting  to  the  use  of  strong  drink, 
while  the  odor  of  the  common  or  garden  pink  develops  a  meek 
and  pious  spirit.  The  red  rose,  like  spring,  will  cause  the  fancy 
to  turn,  not  lightly  but  rapturously,  to  thoughts  of  love. 

The  majority  of  our  artists  and  poets  praise  the  beauty  of  the 
light-haired,  blue-eyed,  fair-skinned  and  violet-scented  woman  as 
their  highest  ideal  of  feminine  loveliness. 

The  blonde  who  uses  rose  or  Oriental  odors  transgresses 
against  her  own  best  interests,  and  sins  against  nature ;  she  should 
use  violet,  or  some  of  the  odors  akin  to  violet,  such  as  lilac,  acacia, 
apple  blossom,  etc.,  so  that  she  and  the  perfumes  she  uses  may  be 
in  full  accord,  each  enhancing  the  sweetness  of  the  other.  There 
must  be  personal  harmony  between  the  perfume  and  the  user,  or 
the  odor  of  the  perfume  is  destroyed  or  rendered  disagreeable  by 
being  contaminated  by  discordant  body  odors;  and  there  results 
a  discord  which  is  generally  recognizable  though  but  few  may 
understand  its  nature. 

The  clean  and  healthy  human  body,  fresh  from  the  bath 
(Fig.  87)  emits  an  agreeable  odor,  which,  in  the  woman  because 
she  uses  no  liquors,  tobacco  or  strongly-spiced  foods,  resembles 
the  delicate  fragrance  of  perfumery.  These  body  odors  are  most 
characteristic  about  the  bosom  and  the  axillas,  and  in  the  darker- 
colored  races  of  men,  and  especially  among  negroes,  are  often  so 
strong  as  to  be  disagreeable  to  white  people. 

Prof.  Jaeger,  a  German  scientist,  ascribed  the  characteristic 
odors  of  the  head,  axillas  and  pubes  to  the  hair,  but  it  is  probable 
that  the  hair  odors  are  not  as  delicate  nor  as  delightful  as  those 
of  the  skin  itself,  especially  the  skin  of  the  breasts  and  bosom. 
But  it  is  very  possible  that  the  odor  of  the  hair,  especially  that 
about  the  pubes,  may  be  more  aphrodisiacally  exciting  (Prof. 
Jaeger's  Haar-Duft-Theorie). 

The  value  of  the  perfume  of  shoulders,  arms,  bosom  and  axil- 
las is  so  much  appreciated  in  recent  years  that  these  parts  of  a 
woman's  body  are  practically  left  bare  in  ball-costumes;  and  as 
the  axilla  itself  is  frequently  shown  in  modern  dance  postures, 
safety  razors  are  publicly  advertised  for  ladies'  use,  to  keep  the 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  237 

axillas  smooth-shaved,  white  and  attractive,  to  intoxicate  their 
partners. 

Novelists  are  well  aware  of  this,  and  passages  like  the  fol- 
lowing, from  The  Prisoner,  by  Alice  Brown,  are  common:  "Once 
within,  beside  her  perfumed  presence — yet  Esther  used  no  vulgar 
helps  to  provoke  the  senses, — he  forgot  that  he  must  be  safe  and 
took  her  in  his  arms.  He  had  been  so  certain  of  his  stability,  that 
he  forgot  to  resist  himself  and  Esther  did  not  help  him.  She 
clung  to  him,  and  the  perfume  mounted  to  his  brain.  What  was 


Fig.  87. — An   artist's  model. 

it?    Not,  even  he  knew,  a  cunning  of  the  toilet;  only  the  whole 
warm  breath  of  her." 

Every  reader  of  the  Bible  is  no  doubt  aware  of  the  prom- 
inence given  to  the  odors  of  the  various  parts  of  the  bride's  body, 
in  the  Song  of  Songs,  where  they  are  compared  to  the  fragrance 
of  grapes,  wine,  apples,  pomegranates,  myrrh,  frankincense,  and 
sweet  spices;  the  Bible  contains  many  references  to  perfume  as 
of  sexual  importance,  as  when  Ruth  anointed  herself  to  be  attrac- 
tive to  Boaz;  or  when  the  bride  in  Solomon's  Song  says  of  her 
lover:  "Who  is  it  that  cometh,  perfumed  with  myrrh,  frankin- 


238 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


cense  and  all  the  powders  of  the  merchants ! ' '  And  especially  does 
the  Bible  emphasize  the  importance  of  the  perfume  of  a  bride. 
(See  Song  of  Songs.) 

We  have  already  learned  how  Judith  prepared  herself  to 
captivate  Holof ernes:  "She  washed  herself  all  over  with  water, 
and  anointed  herself  with  precious  ointment. "  In  Biblical  times 
perfumed  oils  and  "precious"  or  perfumed  ointments  appear  to 
have  been  the  main  forms  for  using  perfumery  for  the  enhance- 
ment of  bodily  attractiveness  (Fig.  88). 


Fig.  88.— " Oriental  Bath,"  from  a  painting  by  Bedt. 

We  read  in  the  Book  of  Esther,  in  the  Bible,  that  King 
Ahasuerus,  being  displeased  with  his  queen  Vashti,  sent  her  away 
and  sought  a  new  queen ;  Esther  ii,  2-17 :  ' '  Let  there  be  fair  young 
virgins  sought  for  the  king,  and  let  the  maiden  that  pleaseth  the 
king  be  queen  instead  of  Vashti.  *  *  *  So  it  came  to  pass  that 
many  maidens  were  gathered  together  *  *  *.  Now,  when  every 
maiden's  turn  was  come  to  go  in  unto  King  Ahasuerus,  after  she 
had  been  twelve  months  according  to  the  manner  of  the  women 
(for  so  were  the  days  of  their  purification  accomplished,  towit, 
six  months  with  oil  of  myrrh  and  six  months  with  sweet  odors  and 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

with  other  things  for  the  purifying  of  the  women) ;  then  thus  came 
every  maiden  unto  the  king  *  *  *  in  the  evening  she  went  and 
on  the  morrow  she  returned  to  the  custody  of  Shaashgaz,  the 
king's  chamberlain  who  kept  the  concubines.  *  *  *  So  Esther 
was  taken  unto  King  Ahasuerus  *  *  *  and  the  king  loved 
Esther  above  all  the  other  women  *  *  *  so  that  he  made  her 
queen  instead  of  Vashti." 

The  preparation  of  a  bride  for  the  nuptials  by  bathing  and 
perfuming  is  probably  universal,  but  amongst  ourselves  it  is  not 
a  public  function,  but  a  private  matter,  except  that  intimate  girl 
friends  are  allowed  to  see  the  garments  of  the  trousseau. 

Among  Hottentots  and  some  African  tribes  where  the  unmar- 
ried women  go  naked,  the  bride  is  perfumed  by  rubbing  the  entire 
body  with  the  bruised  leaves  of  buchu  or  other  odorous  plants. 

In  some  tribes  on  Islands  of  the  Pacific  the  process  of  per- 
fuming the  bride  is  a  public  festival.  Patchouly  and  other  fra- 
grant leaves  and  flowers  are  boiled  during  a  whole  night  while 
bonfires  burn  and  general  festivities  take  place.  In  the  morning 
a  large  tub  or  trough  is  taken  to  the  public  square  of  the  village 
and  is  filled  with  the  odorous  decoction;  the  bride,  naked,  is  then 
brought  by  her  women  friends  and  placed  in  this  batli  to  soak 
during  the  whole  day,  while  general  feasting  is  indulged  in  until 
in  the  evening  when  she  is  conducted  to  the  home  of  her  future 
husband. 

In  India  the  bride  is  prepared  for  marriage  by  being  fed  for 
some  days  on  cakes  made  by  rolling  a  piece  of  benzoin  in  lumps 
of  dough  and  frying  in  melted  butter,  similar  to  our  doughnuts. 
As  the  Hindu  religion  is  a  form  of  sex-worship  and  they  use  ben- 
zoin as  incense  in  their  temples,  this  feeding  the  bride  on  these 
perfumed  cakes  may  have  a  religious  significance. 

Among  the  ancient  Egyptians  wealthy  women  went  naked,  or 
nearly  so,  for  their  costly  veil-like  draperies  were  a  protection 
against  gnats  and  flies,  rather  than  protective  clothing;  poor 
women,  and  slave  women,  wore  coarse  and  opaque  cotton  gar- 
ments, and  slave  girls  trained  as  dancers  and  musicians  wore  noth- 
ing at  all.  This  (Fig.  89)  is  from  an  ancient  Egyptian  painting 
and  shows  Nefert-Ari-Ahmes  ("the  beautiful  consort  of  Ahmes"), 
whose  garments  could  not  have  obscured  her  physical  charms, 
including  her  bodily  odors;  but  inscriptions  of  her  time,  about 


240 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


1500  B.C.,  inform  us  that  women  of  that  period  perfumed  their 
sexual  parts  to  add  to  their  attractiveness. 

A  similar  custom  still  prevails  in  some  of  the  tribes  of  Oce- 
anica;  and  it  is  probably  practiced  by  a  certain  class  of  women 
everywhere,  even  amongst  us. 

Many  of  the  ancients  were  fond  of  strong-smelling  ointments  or 
perfumes,  just  as  are  their  descendants,  the  modern  Oriental  peo- 
ple. The  aim  of  the  ancients  was  to  find  some  perfume  so  fully 
in  accord  with  their  bodies  that  the  odor  might  seem  as  a  real 
emanation  from  their  own  bodies.  But  unlike  moderns  they  did 


Fig.  89. — Nef ert-Ari-Ahmes ;  from  L'Egypte,  published  by  order  of  Napoleon. 

not  seek  to  accomplish  this  by  mixing  different  simples  to  make 
a  "blend,"  as  we  do  today,  but  by  applying  different,  but  har- 
monious scents  to  different  parts  of  their  bodies. 

Lucian,  an  ancient  writer,  tells  us  that  the  Athenians  used 
different  perfumes  for  different  parts  of  their  bodies :  *  *  Egyptian 
essences  for  the  hands  and  feet,  Phoenician  perfumes  for  the 
cheeks  and  bosom,  marjoram  for  the  hair,  and  th  spirit  of  wild 
thyme  for  the  thighs." 

And  who  does  not  recall  in  this  connection  the  story  of  Mary 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  241 

anointing  the  feet  of  Jesus  with  very  costly  ointment  of  spikenard 
and  wiping  his  feet  with  her  hair  (John  xii,  3). 

That  I  speak  mainly  of  women  in  connection  with  perfumery 
is  due 

First:  To  the  fact  that  women  use  most  of  it; 
Second:  Because  men  have  studied  the  subject  more  closely 
in  its  relation  to  women;  and 

Lastly:  Also  perhaps  on  the  principle  of  the  old  nursery 
rhyme — 

' 'Snips  and  snails,  and  puppy  dogs'  tails 
Are  the  things  the  boys  are  made  of; 
Sugar  and  spice,  and  all  that  is  nice 
Are  the  things  the  girls  are  made  of." 

"The  most  beautiful  object  in  the  world,  it  will  be  allowed,  is 
a  beautiful  woman,"  said  Macauley,  and  it  is  but  natural  that  we 
should  mentally  associate  her  with  everything  that  is  pleasing  to 
our  senses,  sweet  perfumes,  fragrant  flowers,  poetry  and  music, 
and  everything  else  that  we  delight  in. 

Women  fascinate  men  with  many  charms,  and  the  use  of  per- 
fumery is  not  the  least  potent  of  these.  Large  volumes  have  been 
written  on  this  subject,  but  we  can  only  stop  to  consider  a  few 
of  the  most  elementary  facts.  We  love  to  associate  women  with 
the  fragrance  of  flowers ;  we  like  to  see  them  wear  flowers.  Most 
women  use  perfumes  in  the  art  of  loving.  Shakspeare  referred  to 
this  when  he  said  of  Cleopatra:  "She  was  so  perfumed  that  the 
winds  were  love-sick. ' ' 

We  read  in  the  Song  of  Songs:  "How  fair  art  thou,  my  sis- 
ter, my  spouse!  How  much  better  is  thy  love  than  wine!  And 
the  smell  of  thy  ointments  than  all  spices !  Thy  lips,  0,  my  spouse, 
drop  as  the  honeycomb,  and  milk  and  honey  are  under  thy  tongue; 
and  the  smell  of  thy  garments  is  like  the  smell  of  Lebanon!" 

We  may  divide  women  into  two  classes — those  who  use  per- 
fumeries, and  those  who  do  not  (Fig.  90) ;  the  hitter  are  apt  to  be 
of  a  prosaic  turn  of  mind  and  with  but  little  sympathy  for  all  the 
higher  aspirations  of  the  refined  and  educated  women  of  today; 
some  women  abstain  from  the  use  of  perfumery  from  a  religious 
objection  to  all  dainty  enhancements  of  bodily  attractiveness,  be- 
cause they  believe  that  such  things  lead  to  sensuality  and  are 
therefore  vanity  and  sin;  others  are  content  with  any  coarse 


242  SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

scents,  as  citronella  or  bergamot  for  the  hair,  cinnamon  for  the 
handkerchief,  wintergreen  and  sassafras  for  flavors,  garlic  or  sage 
(ugh!)  for  cooking,  and  perhaps  a  sprig  of  peppermint  or  rose- 
mary on  Sundays  to  carry  to  church. 

Such  women  exert  no  powerful  or  lasting  fascination  for  men, 
and  if  they  are  married  their  husbands  may  be  tempted  to  go 
outside  of  their  own  homes,  to  find  gratification  elsewhere,  with 
daintier  women. 

Odor  may  be  considered  as  a  secondary  sexual  characteristic, 
in  general  harmony  with  pigmentation  and  hair-coloring ;  the  wise 


Fig.  90. — She  does  not  use  perfumery. 

woman  will  not  underestimate  its  importance,  but  will  make  it 
subservient  to  her  worldly  interests. 

Huysmans  says:  "The  hair  has  a  whole  gamut  of  odors;  au- 
dacious and  fatiguing  in  the  brunette  and  black  woman ;  sharp  and 
fierce  in  the  red ;  and  like  sugared  wine  in  blondes. ' ' 

Prof.  A.  Galapin  writes  of  the  "sweet,  health-giving  charac- 
ter of  the  odors  of  the  beloved  woman." 

La  Gousse  says  that  the  odors  of  the  arm-pits,  "whether  in 
a  country  lass  or  a  society  belle,  are  all  the  more  seductive  as  they 
filter  through  the  garments." 

Casanova  remarks  that  he  always  found  the  odor  of  the 
woman  he  loved,  "sweet  as  an  intimate  balsamic  and  voluptuous 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  24.'J 

emanation;"  and  Casanova  had  exceptional  experience  and  knew 
what  he  spoke  about. 

Herrick,  one  of  the  older  English  poets,  displayed  a  special 
interest  in  the  sexual  attractiveness  of  odors,  and  wrote  lyrics  to 
"Julia's  Breath,"  "Julia's  Sweat,"  and  "Julia  unlacing  her- 
self." He  declared  that  hands  and  bosom  and  thighs  and  legs  are 
all  richly  perfumed  and  most  kissable. 

In  the  Hebrew  Song  of  Songs  there  are  twenty-four  refer- 
ences to  the  odors  of  the  woman  as  being  sexually  attractive. 

In  the  Kama-Sutra  of  Vatryayana,  the  Hindu  writer  speaks 
of  the  perspiration  of  the  perfect  woman  as  smelling  of  musk, 
while  that  of  the  vulgar  woman  smells  of  fish. 

Kipling  says  of  Lalun:  "She  is  a  member  of  the  most  ancient 
profession  in  the  world.  In  the  West,  people  say  rude  things 
about  Lalun 's  profession  and  write  lectures  about  it  and  distrib- 
ute the  lectures  to  young  people  in  order  that  morality  may  be 
preserved.  She  has  been  variously  compared  to  the  moon,  the 
Dil-Sagar  Lake,  a  spotted  quail,  a  gazelle,  the  sun  on  the  desert 
of  Kutch,  the  dawn,  the  stars,  and  the  young  bamboo.  These  com- 
parisons imply  that  she  is  beautiful,  exceedingly.  To  describe 
Lalun  wrould  need,  as  the  poet  Wali-Dad  said:  'A  thousand  pens 
of  gold,  and  ink  scented  with  musk.' 

Hindu  writers  refer  to  the  sexual  odor  of  the  perfect  woman 
(during  coition)  as  "not  unlike  that  of  a  newly  burst'  bud  of 
henna  flowers,"  or  like  an  opening  bud  of  the  moon-flower,  or  as 
patchouly  leaves,  which  have  spermatic  odors ;  and  the  aphrodisiac 
odor  of  many  plants  is  attributed  to  capric  and  caprylic  acids,  to 
which  vaginal  and  seminal  odors  owe  their  peculiar  characteristics. 

Persian  literature  refers  to  woman's  hair  as  a  crown  of 
musk ;  and  the  ancient  Irish  Sagas  spoke  of  the  pleasure  of  women 
in  the  presence  of  their  lovers'  odors. 

On  the  other  hand,  men  who  use  perfumery  have  always  been 
considered  effeminate;  Zeno,  a  Greek,  who  lived  about  350  B.C., 
meeting  a  man  wTho  was  all  over  ointments  and  perfumery,  said: 
"Who  is  this,  who  smells  like  a  woman?" 

The  basis  of  all  modern  perfumes  is  largely  derived  from 
glands  connected  with  the  sexual  parts  of  animals;  even  the  oil 
glands  in  flowers  furnish  their  attars  because  they  are  necessary 
to  the  fertilization  of  the  ovum. 

The  natural  odors  of  the  human  body  vary  from  strong  musk- 


244  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

like  exhalations  in  some  women,  to  fainter  violet-like  odors  in 
other  women.  It  is  claimed  by  many  writers  that  strong,  musk- 
like  perspiration  is  associated  with  strong  emotions  and  passions, 
and  that  women  who  exhale  it  are  apt  to  love  ardently  and  to 
become  jealous  easily;  they  cause  similar  emotions  in  men  and 
rouse  in  the  latter  such  violent  passions  that  they  often  lead  to 
vice  and  crime. 

This  type  of  women  is  most  frequently  found  in  Southern 
climes,  where  the  flowers  are  more  odorous,  colors  more  intense, 
fruits  more  highly  flavored,  spices  hotter,  bodily  exhalations  more 
pronounced  and  passions  fiercer.  That  these  odors  are  really 
aphrodisiac  or  sexually  exciting,  is  proved  by  the  behavior  of 
cats,  who  are  excited  by  the  intimate  wearing  apparel,  such  as 
chemises,  of  women  of  this  type  as  they  would  be  by  valerian; 
even  to  men  the  odors  of  such  women  are  oppressive  and  sexually 
excitant,  having  the  same  effect  as  that  of  the  close  and  hot  air  of 
a  ball-room,  where  bare  bosoms,  shoulders,  arms  and  axillas,  stim- 
ulated by  the  exercise  of  dancing,  saturate  the  air  with  the  exha- 
lations of  women  in  their  most  seductive  moods. 

Women  of  this  type  furnish  many  of  that  class  of  whom  King 
Solomon  wrote : ' '  There  met  him  a  woman  with  the  attire  of  an  har- 
lot, and  she  caught  him  and  kissed  him  and  said  unto  him,  Be- 
hold, I  have  perfumed  my  bed  with  myrrh,  aloes  and  cinnamon- 
Come,  let  us  take  our  fill  of  love  until  morning!"  (Prov.  vii,  10). 

Such  was  Lalun,  of  whom  Kipling  wrote :  "Her  eyes  are  black, 
and  her  hair  is  black,  and  her  eye-brows  are  black  as  leeches ;  her 
mouth  is  tiny  and  says  witty  things ;  her  hands  are  tiny ;  her  feet 
are  tiny  and  have  trodden  on  the  naked  hearts  of  many  men. 
But  as  Wali-Dad  sings:  'Lalun  is  Lalun,  and  when  you  have  said 
that,  you  have  only  come  to  the  beginning  of  knowledge.' 

"Women  of  this  type,  probably  impelled  by  a  consciousness  of 
the  penetrating  character  of  their  own  bodily  odors,  use  strong 
perfumes,  and  when  they  belong  to  that  most  ancient  of  guilds 
which  enables  women  to  turn  caresses  into  riches,  they  drench 
their  clothing  and  their  bodies  with  patchouly,  Jockey  Club,  or 
even  with  pure  essence  of  musk. 

I  have  seen  a  member  of  Lalun 's  calling  come  into  a  drug- 
store and  buy  half-an-ounce  of  perfume  which  she  poured  down 
into  her  bosom  to  saturate  her  body  and  her  underwear  with  its 
fragrance;  and  there  are  such  women  who  inject  perfumery  sub- 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  245 

cutaneously  that  their  skins  may  exhale  fragrant  odors  for  many 
days  afterwards. 

Poisonous  weeds  often  have  heavy  narcotic  odors;  and  it  is 
said  that  the  cobra,  the  deadliest  of  all  venomous  serpents,  betrays 
its  presence  by  a  sickening  odor  which  warns  man  and  beast  of 
danger.  So  these  women  warn  men  by  the  oppressiveness  of 
the  perfumes  they  use;  and  it  is  well  to  heed  the  warning,  for  men 
who  allow  themselves  to  become  infatuated  with  such  women  are 
often  brought  to  disgrace  and  ruin,  even  to  murder  and  suicide. 

Of  course,  not  all  girls  or  women  who  use  strong  perfumes 
are  wicked  or  inclined  to  be  so.  Many  of  them  use  strong  per- 
fumes from  no  personal  necessity,  for  either  their  own  bodily 
odors  are  not  penetrating,  or  they  can  keep  them  in  moderation 
with  baths ;  some  few  use  them  because  they  suffer  from  diseases 
accompanied  by  disagreeable  odors,  as  in  cancer;  some  others, 
because  they  have  a  defective  sense  of  smell  and  are  really  not 
aware  that  they  use  more  than  ordinarily  strong  scents;  but  a 
large  number  use  "loud"  perfumes  from  the  same  thoughtlessness 
that  leads  them  to  wear  "loud"  dress  or  to  indulge  in  "loud" 
behavior — to  attract  attention. 

The  latter  may  not  be  wickedly  inclined,  but  they  play  a  dan- 
gerous game,  for  "loudness"  of  any  kind  tempts  some  men  to 
take  liberties  in  word  or  deed,  that,  even  if  resented,  mortify  and 
humiliate,  and  if  not  resented,  may  lead  to  shame  and  ruin 
(Fig.  91). 

Then  there  is  the  violet-scented  girl!  more  frequently  found 
among  the  daughters  of  the  North,  where  flowers  arc  less  odorous 
but  more  sweet,  colors  less  intense,  fruits  and  spices  milder- 
flavored,  bodily  exhalations  less  strong,  and  passions  more  easily 
controlled;  it  is  of  such  a  girl  that  Longfellow  wrote: 

"Blue  were  her  eyes  as  the  fairy  flax, 
Her  cheeks  like  the  dawn  of  day, 
And  her  bosom  white  like  the  hawthorn  bud 
That  opes  in  the  month  of  May." 

Conscious  of  the  purity  and  sweetness  of  her  own  body 
(Fig.  92)  the  violet-scented  girl  neither  needs  nor  uses  strong  per- 
fumes; she  pours  a  little  lavender  in  her  bath,  or  places  a  sachet 
of  violet  or  vetivert  among  the  lingerie  in  her  chiffonier,  or  per- 


246 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


haps  she  sprays  a  drop  of  heliotrope  or  lilac  over  her  dress  and 
handkerchief. 

When  you  call  on  her,  as  she  enters  the  room,  the  perfume  of 
her  presence  reminds  you  of  the  air  coming  over  fields  of  new- 
mown  hay,  or  of  breezes  laden  with  the  fragrance  of  the  eglantine, 
of  mignonette,  or  sweet  violets;  and  she  looks  so  sweet  that  you 
can  almost  imagine  the  frou-frou  of  her  gowns  to  be  the  humming 
of  bees  gathering  honey.  She  arouses  no  passions  that  lead  to 
ruin,  but  the  mind  is  calmed  with  a  feeling  akin  to  that  which  we 
experience  when  we  enter  a  church,  for  we  feel  instinctively  that 


Fig.  91. — "Innocence  in  Danger." 
Playing  with  an  arrow,  or,  figuratively,  a 
lingam,  from  a  painting  by  Voillemont. 


Tig.  92.— "The     Bather,"     reproduction 
made  from  a  painting. 


we  are  in  the  presence  of  something  better  and  purer  than  we  our- 
selves are.  Her  presence  and  her  fragrance  rouse  in  our  hearts 
all  the  emotions  that  tend  to  make  us  better  men,  and  we  feel,  as 
we  perhaps  never  felt  before,  the  truth  of  the  words  of  the  poet : 

"Blessed  through  Love  are  the  Gods — through  Love 
Their  bliss  to  ourselves  is  given; 
Heavenlier  through  Love  is  the  heaven  above, 
And  Love  makes  the  earth  a  heaven !" 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


You  may  fall  in  love  with  such  a  woman — it  would  perhaps 
be  a  wonder  if  you  did  not — and  you  may  ask  her  to  become  your 
wife;  and  if  she  marries  you  she  will  prove  an  inspiration  that 
will  spur  you  on  to  live  a  useful  and  honored  life  (Fig.  93). 

But  if  she  remains  only  a  friend,  or  promises  to  be  a  sister 
to  you,  or  even  if  she  passes  out  of  your  life  altogether,  you  will 
be  a  better  and  purer  man  for  having  known  her,  and  having  in- 
haled the  fragrance  of  her  presence. 

And  if  you  never  marry,  but  pass  your  life  solitary  and  alone, 
without  a  wife  to  double  your  joys  and  divide  your  sorrows,  per- 


Fig.    93.— "At    Last   Alone,"    from    a 
painting  by   Tofano. 


Fig    94. — "Spring,"    from    painting    by 
P.  A.  Cot. 


haps  in  some  moments  of  revery  your  memory  will  turn  back  1 
some  such  girl,  and  as  you  think  of  the  might-have-been,  you  will 
perhaps  feel  with  the  poet  Tennyson : 

''The  smell  of  violets  in  the  green 

Pour'd  back  into  my  empty  soul  and  frame, 
The  times  when  I  remembered  to  have  been 

Joyful,  and  free  from  blame." 

The  ancients  believed  that  when  they  inhaled  any  odor,  a  por- 
tion of  the  object  from  which  that  odor  emanated  became  a  part 


248 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


of  themselves;  odors  are  exhalations  of  real  particles  of  matter, 
and  who  knows  but  what  the  ancients  were  right,  and  that  when 
we  inhale  the  fragrance  of  the  violet-scented  girl,  a  part  of  her 
innocence  and  purity  may  enter  into  our  souls  and  become  a  part 
of  our  own  being,  to  inspire  in  us  a  desire  to  lead  a  life  as  clean 
and  as  pure  as  her  own! 

Sense  of  Hearing 

The  sense  of  hearing  is  subordinate  in  importance,  yet  a 
sweet  voice  is  a  pleasant  thing;  to  most  men  the  gushing  and 


Fig.  95. — "Eve,"   from   painting  by    Grandchamp. 

gurgling  laugh  of  a  pretty  woman  is  the  most  entrancing  music 
in  nature;  and  possibly  all  men  agree  with  Shakspeare  when  he 
says: 

"Her  voice  was  ever  soft, 
Gentle,  and  low;  an  excellent  thing  in  woman." 

The  man's  voice  changes  from  a  boyish  treble  to  a  masculine 
bass  about  the  age  of  puberty  and  it  is  not  as  dulcet  as  the  voice 
of  the  woman ;  but  the  influence  of  the  man 's  voice  over  woman  is 
not  so  much  in  the  sound  of  the  voice  as  in  the  words  spoken; 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  249 

women  are  susceptible  to  flattery  and  fall  victims  to  the  seducer 
usually  in  response  to  his  wooing  words,  but  mainly  to  the  mod- 
ern ideas  which  deny  her  a  knowledge  of  sexual  facts,  so  that  she 
is  too  innocent  and  inexperienced  to  be  on  her  guard.  AVheri  a 
girl  is  seduced  it  is  generally  the  fault  of  the  mother  in  not  in- 
forming her  daughter  properly  so  she  would  be  worldly-wise 
enough  to  avoid  harm. 

It  was  Eve,  not  Adam,  who  listened  to  the  beguiling  words  of 
the  serpent.  It  was  for  this  reason  that,  as  Ruskin  tells  us,  the 
serpent  in  paradise  was  for  many  centuries  represented  with  the 
head  of  a  man,  as  in  this  illustration  Eve,  by  Grandchamp  (Fig. 
95). 


Fig.  96. — "Love's  Dream,"   from  a  painting  by  Mortens. 

Sense  of  Taste 

The  sense  of  taste  runs  in  a  minor  key  through  the  universal 
song  of  love;  yet  it  gives  it  some  of  its  most  tender  chords, 
kiss  is  called  the  "salute  by  tasting,"  and  it  is  known  to  about 
one-half  of  mankind   (Fig.  96).     The  kiss  lias  boon  likened  to 
Creation — "made  out  of  nothing,  but  very  good!' 

Originally  the  kiss  pointed  to  an  idea  of  commingling  of 
souls,  the  breath  being  considered  the  life  of  the  person,  as  ex- 
pressed in  the  Bible,  where  God  blows  his  breath  into  Adam  to 
give  him  life. 

The  Japanese  do  not  permit  kissing  except  as  a  caress  be- 
tween husband  and  wife,  it  being  considered  so  distinctly  sexual 
that  even  parents  do  not  kiss  their  children,  nor  are  brothers  and 


250  SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

sisters  permitted  to  kiss  each  other.  It  is  slanderous,  however, 
when  it  is  claimed  that  women  have  an  instinctive  feeling  that  a 
kiss  is  a  sexual  caress,  and  that  they  kiss  one  another  in  obedi- 
ence to  the  Golden  Kule — "Doing  unto  each  other  as  they  would 
that  men  should  do  unto  them." 

The  lover  or  husband  does  not  restrict  his  kisses  to  the  lips 
or  cheeks  of  his  beloved  one,  but  finds  even  greater  pleasure  in 
kissing  other  parts  of  her  body,  as  the  bosom,  etc. 

"I  rest  content;  I  kiss  your  eyes, 
I  kiss  your  hair  in  my  delight, 
I  kiss  your  hand  and  say  'Good  Night!' 

(Joaquin  Miller.) 

' '  And  his  kiss !    What  ecstatic  feeling ! 
Like  two  flames  that  lovingly  entwine ; 
Like  the  harp's  soft  tones  together   stealing 
Into  one  sweet  harmony  divine, — 

Soul  and  soul  embraced,  commingled,  blended, 
Lips  and  cheeks  with  trembling  passion  burn'd 
Heaven  and  Earth,  in  pristine  chaos  ended 
Round  the  blissful  lovers  madly  twined." 

(Schiller.) 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  there  are  traces  of  the  importance 
of  the  flavor  of  the  woman  still  persisting.  This  is  not  the  place 
to  consider  love-charms ;  it  will  suffice  to  mention  only  three  which 
are  still  in  vogue  in  primitive  communities  of  Europe.  In  some 
parts  of  France  mothers  carefully  preserve  the  afterbirth  (pla- 
centa and  membranes)  of  their  daughters;  when  the  latter  are 
grown  to  marriageable  age  this  afterbirth  is  powdered  and  a  small 
pinch  of  it  is  secretly  placed  in  the  food  or  drink  offered  to  de- 
sirable young  men,  in  the  belief  that  this  will  stimulate  their  de- 
sire and  passion  for  the  girl. 

In  the  middle  ages,  and  probably  occasionally  at  the  present 
time,  a  girl  would  bake  a  "love-cake"  to  be  given  to  the  lover 
whom  she  desired  to  secure  as  a  husband.  To  bake  this  cake  the 
girl  had  to  be  naked ;  she  touched  the  dough  to  her  breasts,  axillas, 
genitals,  etc.,  so  that  it  might  absorb  some  of  her  sweat,  which 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  251 

was  supposed  to  convert  the  cake  into  a  most  powerful  love-charm. 
Or  she  took  the  bloody  napkins  which  she  wore  while  men- 
struating and  burnt  them  to  ashes,  of  which  she  mixed  some  with 
the  dough  for  the  cake. 

Some  authors  connect  the  pleasure  by  taste,  as  symbolized  by 
the  kiss,  or  as  actually  carried  out  in  sucking  or  biting  the  woman 
during  sexual  frenzy,  with  the  protoplasmic  hunger  of  lower  or- 
ganisms ;  it  is  curious  that  we  should  have  such  endearing  expres- 
sions as  "sweet  enough  to  eat"  or  "so  pretty,  I'd  like  to  eat  you," 
and  that  in  the  caresses  of  babies  by  their  mothers  playful  pre- 
tences of  biting  or  eating  should  be  so  universal. 

The  eating  (or  tasting)  of  human  bodies  is  still  a  habit  in 
certain  parts  of  the  world;  it  is  called  anthropophagy.  In  the 
caves  of  the  troglodites  human  bones  were  found  which  had  been 
roasted  and  cracked  for  their  marrow;  but  so  rarely,  that  we  are 
not  justified  in  considering  this  to  have  been  a  habit  among  prim- 
itive men.  In  the  main,  mankind  has  felt  a  horror  at  eating  its 
own  kind,  going  even  so  far  that  savages  could  not  eat  their  own 
totems  (animals  or  plants  from  whom  they  imagined  themselves 
descended  and  to  which  they  were  therefore  related). 

Cannibalism  was  a  religious  rite  in  some  nations,  as  among 
the  Aztecs  who  ate  the  human  sacrificial  victims,  whose  hearts 
had  been  offered  to  Huitzilopochtli. 

In  the  Islands  of  the  Pacific  cannibalism  was  probably  due 
to  necessity  or  famine;  in  years  of  bad  crops  starvation  threat- 
ened all,  and  therefore  the  older  and  weaker  were  killed  and  eaten 
to  save  the  rest. 

Cannibalism  probably  occurred  everywhere  when  famines 
prevailed.  In  Leviticus  (ch.  xxvi,  29)  we  read  of  God's  threat 
against  Israel,  of  dire  punishments,  including  want  and  famine; 
"And  ye  shall  eat  the  flesh  of  your  sons,  and  the  flesh  of  your 
daughters  shall  ye  eat." 

This  is  said  to  be  still  done  among  the  Fuegians,  although  not 
always  from  necessity. 

In  Hawaii  it  was  formerly  practiced  as  a  religious  rite,  for 
when  a  great  chief  or  warrior  died,  the  other  chiefs  ate  his  heart 
and  liver  so  that  his  valor  would  pass  into  them  and  thus  be  pre- 
served to  the  people. 

In  the  Fiji  Islands  cannibalism  was  part  of  their  religion;  it 


252  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

was  believed  that  the  souls  of  the  dead  were  eaten  by  the  gods, 
and  the  bodies  were  eaten  by  the  worshippers. 

In  Australia  it  is  practiced  in  exultation  over  slain  enemies, 
because  it  is  believed  the  valor  of  the  slain  in  battle  will  enter  the 
eaters;  but  sometimes  it  is  a  solemn  funeral  rite  and  they  intend 
to  show  great  respect  for  their  loved  dead,  by  eating  them. 

In  all  times  the  adherents  of  persecuted  religions  have  been 
accused  of  all  kinds  of  evil  deeds;  so  in  the  time  of  the  persecu- 
tions of  the  Christians  in  Kome,  under  Nero,  Tiberius,  Caligula, 
etc.,  the  Christians  were  accused  of  being  atheists,  that  they  were 
licentious,  ate  human  flesh,  etc. ;  Athenagoras  was  a  Christian 
apologist  (II  Century  A.D.)  who  wrote  a  defence  in  which  he  refutes 
these  accusations  and  he  in  turn  bitterly  attacked  the  wickedness 
of  the  Romans. 

But  human  flesh  is  considered  proper  and  good  food  by  mil- 
lions upon  millions  of  the  inhabitants  of  our  earth  to  this  day. 
In  all  parts  of  Africa  negro  slavery  continues  and  slave  raids  oc- 
cur at  all  times;  formerly  these  slaves  were  exported  to  Amer- 
ica, but  since  dealing  in  slaves  has  been  declared  piracy,  and  those 
who  are  captured  with  slaves  on  their  ships  are  hanged,  the  ex- 
port to  America  ceased,  even  before  slavery  itself  was  abolished 
in  America.  Some  are  still  exported  across  the  Bed  Sea  to  Asia ; 
but  the  trade  has  now  been  deflected  to  Central  Africa;  the  sur- 
plus of  slaves  who  are  not  needed  anywhere  as  servants,  are  now 
taken  to  inner  Africa,  where  they  are  butchered  as  cattle  are  with 
us  and  their  flesh  is  used  as  food.  The  live  slaves  are  exchanged 
for  ivory,  gold,  rubber,  etc.,  and  a  profitable  trade  is  carried  on 
in  this  way  by  some  Arabian  dealers  and  raiders. 

Formerly  human  flesh  was  considered  a  delicacy  in  Fiji,  in 
Sumatra  among  the  Battas,  in  inner  Papua,  among  the  Monbuttu 
of  Africa,  etc.  The  Monbuttu  in  Africa  dry  the  bodies  of  those 
slain  in  their  raids  for  future  use,  and  they  drive  the  captives  like 
a  herd  of  sheep,  to  be  slaughtered  later  as  they  need  them  for  food. 

It  is  more  than  probable  that  human  sacrifices  would  not  have 
been  in  vogue  if  human  flesh  had  not  been  appreciated  as  good 
food;  it  is  unlikely  that  a  feast  of  human  flesh  should  have  been 
offered  to  the  gods,  if  the  offerers  had  not  esteemed  it  a  delicacy. 

Stories  of  cannibalism  on  shipwrecked  vessels,  etc.,  are  not 
uncommon. 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  Of)3 

Sense  of  Touch 

Closely  allied  to  the  kiss  is  the  pleasure  felt  in  caressing  the 
body  of  a  beloved  one  with  the  hands.  The  embrace  is  essen- 
tially an  effort  to  touch  as  much  as  possible  of  another  (Fig.  97) 
at  one  time,  and  it  finds  its  intensest  gratification  in  the  sexual 
embrace  of  man  and  woman. 

The  skin  of  a  woman  is  softer  to  the  touch  than  silk  or  velvet ; 
more  exquisitely  beautiful  to  the  eye,  and  capable  of  conveying 
more  delicious  sensations  to  the  hand  of  a  man,  than  any  other 
substance  in  the  world.  The  Shulamite  bride,  in  Solomon's  Song, 


Fig.  97. — "A  Man  and  a  Woman,"  by  Binding. 

said  of  her  lover:  "His  left  hand  should  be  under  my  head  and  his 
right  hand  should  embrace  me"  (Cant,  viii,  3). 

Sense  of  Sight 

The  sense  by  which  we  chiefly  discover  beauty  in  material 
objects  and  through  which  we  experience  the  highest  form  of  en- 
joyment, is  the  sense  of  sight.  The  characteristics  taken  cogni- 
zance of  by  this  sense  are — Color,  Form  and  Motion.  There  can 
of  course  be  no  abstract  standard  of  beauty  as  regards  color,  since 
preference  in  this  regard  depends  on  individual  or  race  tastes.  The 
white  skins  of  our  women,  which  we  consider  so  beautiful,  are  not 
so  much  admired  by  the  men  of  other  races  who  generally  prefer 


254 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


the  beauty  of  their  own  women,  even  when,  to  our  tastes,  they  are 
positively  ugly. 

Thus  among  the  women  of  Borneo  but  few  are  fairly  well 
formed;  the  majority  are  ugly.  In  addition  to  this  handicap  of 
nature  they  think  they  beautify  themselves,  and  perhaps  they  do 
in  the  eyes  of  their  men,  by  staining  their  faces  blue  with  indigo, 
their  front  teeth  black  and  the  canine  teeth  red ;  we  are  told  that 
the  men  of  Borneo  may  take  as  many  wives  as  they  want  but  that 
they  rarely  take  more  than  three ;  after  reading  about  them  many 


Fig.  98.— A  beautiful  blonde  girl. 

of  us  will  wonder  why  they  should  want  any,  or  why  there  are 
not  more  "wild  men  of  Borneo." 

White  men,  being  better  educated  and  more  cosmopolitan  in 
their  tastes,  can  appreciate  the  beauty  of  color  as  well  as  of  form 
of  women  of  other  races ;  for  instance,  it  is  well  known  that  many 
superbly  proportioned  women  are  to  be  found  among  Ethiopian 
and  Abyssinian  tribes,  whose  beauty  is  enhanced  rather  than 
diminished  by  their  glossy  brown-black  skins  which  make  them 
look  like  magnificent  bronze  figures  of  goddesses. 

We  can  appreciate  the  beauty  of  these  dusky  Venuses,  we 
may  admire  the  warm  sensuous  tints  of  the  quadroon  or  octoroon, 


SEX    AXD    SEX    WORSHIP 

some  of  us  may  prefer  the  healthy  glow  of  the  brunette  daughters 
of  the  South,  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  majority  of  our  writ- 
ers and  artists  laud  the  blond  beauty  of  the  light-haired,  blue- 
eyed  and  white-skinned  Northern  women  as  their  highest  ideal  of 
female  loveliness  (Fig.  98). 

Of  all  material  qualities  that  which  is  most  generally  and  most 
naturally  productive  of  the  emotions  of  beauty  is  Form.  "The 
most  beautiful  object  in  the  world,  it  will  be  allowed,  is  a  beau- 
tiful woman,"  said  Macaulay,  and  the  purest  delight  we  can  ex- 
perience is  that  of  seeing  beautiful  women. 

And  this  delight  in  seeing  God's  most  beautiful  creation  is 
natural  and  chaste. 

"Beauty  was  lent  to  nature  as  the  type 
Of  heaven's  unspeakable  and  holy  joy, 
Where  all  perfection  makes  the  sum  of  bliss." 

(Hale.) 

The  Bible  itself  teaches  us  how  to  enjoy  such  beauty:  "Be- 
hold, thou  art  fair,  my  beloved,  yea  pleasant;  thy  teeth  are  like  a 
flock  of  sheep  that  are  even  shorn  which  come  up  from  the  washing; 
thy  two  breasts  are  like  two  young  roes  that  are  twins  which  feed 
among  the  lilies.  How  fair  and  how  pleasant  art  thou,  O,  Love, 
for  delights"  (Song  of  Songs). 

Space  will  not  permit  us  to  dwell  long  on  the  beauties  of  the 
human  face.  If  we  draw  a  horizontal  line  to  divide  the  face  into 
two  equal  halves,  we  notice  that  the  lower  and  more  animal  the 
type,  the  lower  will  such  a  line  drop  towards  the  chin,  and  the 
higher  the  type,  the  nearer  will  such  a  line  approach  toward  the 
eyes  or  forehead. 

We  see  a  typical  illustration  of  the  animal  type  of  face  in 
man,  coarse,  angular,  large-jawed,  large-mouthed  and  brutal,  and 
with  this  line  passing  through  or  just  above  the  bulb  of  the  nose 
in  the  head  of  the  Pithecanthropus,  p.  2G:  while  in  the  intellectual 
type  we  see  an  oval,  small-mouthed,  round-chinnod  face,  with  this 
line  passing  through  or  near  the  eyes. 

The  highest  type  of  feminine  face  is  a  perfect  oval,  the  mouth 
delicately  small,  and  this  lino  passing  through  the  eyes  (Fig.  09). 
Even  in  the  highest  type  of  male  face  some  of  the  animal  features 
are  retained,  for  the  face  is  not  as  perfect  an  oval,  a  suggestion 


256 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


of  angularity  about  the  jaws  giving  an  appearance  of  greater 
strength  and  more  expression,  while  the  mouth  is  larger  and 
somewhat  coarser;  and  the  horizontal  line  passes  just  below  the 
eyes. 

The  highest  type  of  head  and  face  is  that  of  woman,  who,  in 
her  most  perfect  form,  represents  the  highest  achievements  of 
creative  evolution. 

"What  is  female  beauty,  but  an  air  divine 
Through  which  the  mind's  all-gentle  graces  shine." 

(Young.) 

The  hair  has  always  been  held  to  be  one  of  the  loveliest 
charms  of  woman.  The  Bible  says :  "  If  a  woman  have  long  hair, 
it  is  a  glory  to  her"  (I  Cor.  xi,  15). 


Fig.  99. — Types  of  faces  of  highly  civilized  individuals. 

The  most  sense-beguiling  witchery  of  woman  is  when  she 
lets  her  long  hair  hang  loose-flowing  over  her  naked  body; 

"Fair  tresses  man's  imperial  race  ensnare 
And  Beauty  draws  us  with  a  single  hair." 

(Pope.) 

Long  hair  seems  to  be  a  feminine  feature,  not  merely  because 
fashion  requires  it,  but  because  nature  so  ordains.  And  in  pro- 
portion as  the  hair  of  the  head  is  plentiful,  the  small  hair  known 
as  lanugo  ("down")  is  scant  on  the  body.  In  the  man  this  down 
frequently  is  developed  into  large  coarse  hair,  but  then  usually 
the  hair  of  the  head  is  scant  and  the  man  becomes  bald  early.  And 
when  a  man  retains  a  full  head  of  hair  to  past  middle  age,  his 
body  is  usually  hairless  like  a  woman's  body.  The  body  of  the 
woman  is  usually  soft,  smooth  and  hairless  except  in  the  axillas 
and  about  the  pubes. 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


257 


If  we  draw  a  line  to  touch  the  outer  points  on  a  woman's 
shoulder,  hip  and  ankle,  such  a  line  will  be  a  curve  (Fig.  KM)). 
Nature  abhors  angularity  in  a  woman  and  her  body  presents  the 
most  enchanting  combinations  of  curves  and  lines  of  beauty.  Ev- 
ery part  is  rounded  and  dimpled,  and  the  entire  surface,  both  in 
its  lines  and  in  its  texture,  seems  to  have  been  made  to  give  pleas- 
ure to  the  esthetical  eye  and  hand  of  man. 

If  we  draw  two  such  lines,  one  on  each  side  of  the  woman's 
body,  they  will  form  an  ellipse  (Fig.  101),  the  whole  form  of  the 


Fig.  100. — Curves  in  a  woman  's  body. 


Fig.  101. — Elliptic   form  of  woman. 


woman  thus  suggesting  a  figure,  which,  as  we  shall  learn  a  little 
farther  on,  is  symbolical  of  woman  in  a  most  sacred  sense. 

This  width  and  fulness  of  the  female  hips  is  considered  a 
peculiarly  attractive  charm  and  the  constriction  of  the  waist  in 
tight  lacing  is  a  feminine  trick  to  emphasize  the  beauty  of  this 
feature.  The  body  of  a  well-formed  woman  from  the  waist  to  the 
knees  is  almost  a  perfect  oval,  and  it  is  surprising  how  small  the 
upper  part  of  the  body  appears  in  comparison. 

Women  consciously  or  unconsciously  assume  attitudes  which 
display  this  fulness  of  the  hips,  and  such  postures  have  been  im- 


258 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


mortalized  by  artists  ever  since  the  ancient  Greeks  first  sculptured 
naked  female  loveliness  in  bronze  or  marble  (Fig.  102). 

For  the  same  reason  that  men  admire  full  hips  they  also  ad- 
mire large  nates,  and  whether  this  is  instinctive  or  the  result  of 
ages  of  inheritance  of  such  admiration  or  not,  it  is  yet  of  posi- 
tive benefit  to  the  race  (Fig.  103).  Who  would  not  prefer  the 
girl  on  the  left  to  the  one  on  the  right,  and  other  things  being 
equal,  prefer  to  marry  such  a  one,  even  without  consciously  re- 
alizing that  the  ample  pelvis,  indicated  by  the  generous  propor- 
tions of  her  hips  and  buttocks,  mean  sensual  gratification,  easy 


Fig.  102. — "Amor  and  Hebe 
Feeding  Doves  of  Venus,"  from  a 
painting  by  Serres. 


Fig.  103. — Comparison  of  hips  of  women.     The 
girl  on  the  right  has  contracted  pelvis. 


childbirth,  and  a  long  and  healthy  life,  while  the  narrow-hipped 
girl  has  a  contracted  pelvis,  indicating  difficult  labors  with  pos- 
sible death  in  child-bed  or  an  invalid  existence  ever  after  the  first 
confinement.  The  full  development  of  the  hips  and  buttocks  af- 
fords a  better  protection  against  changes  in  temperature  in  win- 
ter to  a  womb  in  which  a  child  is  developing ;  therefore  it  means 
a  better  developed  and  healthier  child  as  well. 

Some  men  become  sexually  excited,  and  have  erotic  desires, 
and  often  involuntary  erections  and  emissions,  when  they  see  a 


SEX    AND   SEX    WORSHIP  259 

large-hipped  woman  walking  with  that  peculiar  gait  known  as 
"wobbling." 

Such  men  would  be  in  continual  misery  if  they  were  sent 
among  the  Hottentots  as  missionaries,  because  Hottentot  women 
have  buttocks  developed  to  a  monstrous  size  as  compared  with 
their  Caucasian  sisters. 

Dimples,  which  are  such  charming  features  of  the  female  face 
and  body,  are  said  to  be  imprints  of  angels'  kisses,  and  they  re- 
main invitations  for  men  to  kiss.  The  woman  who  has  a  pretty 
dimple  is  usually  well  aware  of  its  value,  and 

"You'll  seldom  find  a  maiden  whom 

The  angels  kissed  at  birth, 
But  that  the  dimples  in  her  cheek 
She  makes  to  play  at  hide  and  seek 

For  every  cent  they're  worth." 

Probably  the  prettiest  dimples  are  the  two  in  a  woman's  back, 
immortalized  in  many  a  statue  of  naked  goddess  and  naked  nymph. 

The  loveliest  object  in  the  world  is  the  bosom  of  a  beautiful 
woman.  It  is  to  be  noted  that,  for  aesthetic  reasons,  to  make  a 
young  woman  attractive  in  the  eyes  of  the  man  and  attract  a  mate 
for  her,  the  breasts  of  the  human  female  are  the  only  breasts  that 
are  developed  before  they  are  intended  for  use;  but  then,  the  hu- 
man male  is  also  the  only  male  to  whom  the  female  breast  can  con- 
vey aesthetic  pleasure,  either  by  sight  or  touch.  This  is,  no  doubt, 
in  consequence  of  the  selective  preference  of  men  for  plump-bos- 
omed women  for  wives. 

The  vulgar  and  uneducated  often  consider  an  enormous  ac- 
cumulation of  fat  about  the  breast-glands  to  make  a  beautiful 
breast,  but  the  lovers  of  the  truly  beautiful  know  that  plump, 
firm,  even  if  small  breasts,  low  down  on  the  bosom,  without  a 
fold  underneath,  and  with  their  delicate  pink  nipples  pointing 
straight  forward,  are  the  classically  beautiful  breasts  of  the  an- 
tique Greek  statues. 

The  bosom  of  woman— "that  ivory  throne  of  love"— exhausts 
the  possibilities  of  form-beauty  in  material  objects. 

In  the  Arabian  Nights  Tales  it  is  said  of  Elsett-Budur:  "But 
her  bosom,  blessed  be  the  Gods,  is  a  living  seduction.  It  bears 
twin  breasts  of  the  purity  of  ivory,  rounded,  and  that  may  be 
held  within  the  five  fingers  of  the  hand." 


260  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

The  bride  in  Solomon's  Song  exclaimed:  "My  breasts  are  like 
towers ;  then  was  I  in  his  sight  as  one  that  found  favor ;  a  bundle 
of  myrrh  is  my  well-beloved  one  unto  me;  he  shall  lie  all  night 
betwixt  my  breasts." 

Swedenborg  says  that  in  the  inmost  heaven  all  go  naked,  and 
that  if  a  man  is  good  on  this  earth  the  breasts  of  his  wife  will  be 
restored  to  their  virgin  beauty,  and  will  then  remain  things  of 
beauty  and  of  joy  forever ;  truly  a  much  more  alluring  description 
of  heavenly  bliss  than  the  usual  one,  of  playing  on  harps  for- 
ever, especially  to  one  who  is  not  fond  of  music. 

Unfortunately  the  beauty  of  the  female  breast  is  an  ephem- 
eral charm.  As  the  flower  expands  its  petals  to  attract  the  pollen- 
laden  bee,  that  it  may  fertilize  its  ova,  which  done,  the  petals 
wither  and  die,  so  the  breast,  having  served  its  aesthetic  mission  of 
attracting  the  male,  offers  its  virgin  beauty  as  a  sacrifice  to  util- 
ity; for  after  it  has  once  served  to  nurse  a  child,  it  usually  be- 
comes more  or  less  pendulous,  nodulated  or  flabby,  and  the  delicate 
pink  areola  of  virginity  is  replaced  by  a  darker-colored  and  often 
quite  large  and  ugly  zone. 

Such  hanging  breasts  are  particularly  ugly  in  the  inferior 
races  of  mankind,  as  is  often  seen  in  North  American  Indian 
squaws. 

Among  some  people  in  Africa  the  breasts  are  manipulated 
or  pulled  down  until  they  hang  very  low,  the  gland  being  con- 
tained in  a  pendulous  sac.  The  women  carry  their  children  slung 
on  their  backs,  and  when  a  child  is  restless  the  mother  simply 
hands  it  one  of  her  breasts  over  her  shoulder  to  nurse  it,  with- 
out interfering  with  her  work. 

Even  among  the  ancient  Egyptians  such  flabby  breasts  were 
used  to  represent  hideousness  (Fig.  104).  Taourt,  the  feminine 
counterpart  of  Seth,  the  Egyptian  spirit  of  evil,  was  figured  with 
ugly  breasts,  as  is  shown  in  the  illustration. 

One  of  the  most  hideous  figures  I  remember  to  have  come 
across  in  art,  is  this  figure  of  Death  summoning  a  queen,  from 
the  DeatJi-Dance  of  Basle  (Fig.  105).  The  hanging  breasts,  the 
ugly  pendulous  folds  of  the  belly,  and  the  emaciated  frame,  pre- 
sent a  veritable  "old  hag,"  as  such  ugly  specimens  of  womankind 
are  often  called. 

Mankind  always  abhorred  old  and  ugly  women,  and  to  this 
day  they  are  called  hags  and  witches.  The  Patagonians  kill 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP 


261 


their  women  with  a  club,  when  they  grow  old,  but  Christian 
people,  less  merciful,  burned  no  less  than  four  millions  of 
witches  at  the  stake  in  obedience  to  a  superstition  that  had  its 
origin  in  the  dislike  for  ugliness  in  women. 

The  last  witch  hanged  in  America  was  Bridget  Bishop,  at  Sa- 
lem, Mass.,  in  June,  1692,  but  little  more  than  225  years  ago. 

A  woman's  abdomen!  how  beautiful  its  charming  roundness 
and  softness,  and  its  ivory  whiteness! 

' '  Thy  navel  is  like  a  round  goblet,  which  wanteth  not  liquor ; 
thy  belly  is  like  a  heap  of  wheat  set  about  with  lilies,"  said  the 
lover  in  Solomon's  Song  to  his  bride  (Cant,  vii,  2). 

And  is  there  anything  that  appeals  to  a  husband  for  more 


Fig.  104. — Taourt;   from  temple  at  Kar-     Fig.  105. — "Death  to  the  Queen,"  from 
nak.     An  evil  demon.  the  Death-Dance  of  Basle. 

tender  and  solicitous  regard  than  a  wife's  abdomen  full  of  the 
promise  of  future  childish  laughter  and  frolic  in  the  home! 

The  circumference  of  a  woman's  waist  should  be  a  little  more 
than  two-thirds  of  her  height ;  so  that  a  woman  5  feet  high  should 
have  a  waist  a  trifle  more  than  24  inches  around,  while  a  woman 
of  the  average  height  of  5  feet,  4  inches  should  have  a  waist  at 
least  26  inches  in  circumference.  By  a  curious  adaptation  of 
nature,  the  average  length  of  a  man's  arm  is  equal  to  the  aver- 
age circumference  of  a  woman's  waist — or  also  about  26  inches. 

The  difference  between  an  idealist  and  a  naturalist  has  been 
thus  denned:  The  idealist  looks  into  the  eyes  of  a  woman  to 


262  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

measure  their  depth ;  a  naturalist  looks  at  the  hips  of  a  woman  to 
measure  their  breadth. 

When  choosing  a  wife  it  behooves  a  man  to  be  first  a  natural- 
ist and  only  afterwards  an  idealist.  An  ample  waist  and  pelvis 
means  easy  childbirth,  good  health  and  probably  long  and  happy 
life,  while  a  narrow  or  contracted  pelvis  indicates  difficult  labors 
with  possible  death  during  the  first  confinement  or  an  invalid 
existence  ever  afterwards. 

The  well-formed  woman  is  endowed,  as  Chaucer  expressed 
it  in  the  quaint  English  of  500  years  ago — "with  buttockes  brode 
and  brestes  round  and  hye ; ' '  that  is,  she  is  the  woman  obviously 
best  built  to  bear  children  and  to  suckle  them. 

"How  beautiful  are  thy  feet,  0,  Prince's  daughter;  the 
joints  of  thy  thighs  are  like  jewels!"  wrote  Solomon. 

Hesiod,  one  of  the  writers  of  the  Greek  sacred  books,  was 
fond  of  referring  to  the  trim  ankles  of  the  goddesses;  he  tells  of 
3000  daughters  of  Oceanus  and  Thetis — "  tapering-ankled  ocean 
nymphs;"  another  favorite  adjective  for  goddesses  was  "fair- 
ankled." 

The  legs  and  feet  of  women  are  particularly  attractive  to  men. 
When  Dolly  Dymple  asked  Charley,  as  she  tied  her  shoestrings: 
"Why  is  a  woman's  leg  like  bad  weather?"  and  then  added,  when 
Charley  "gave  up:"  "Because  men  would  like  to  see  it  clear  up," 
she  described  a  mental  trait  that  has  characterized  men  since 
women  first  began  to  hide  the  beauty  of  their  legs  in  petticoats. 
There  is  a  sympathy  between  extremes,  opposites  attract,  and 
many  a  man's  head  has  been  turned  by  a  woman's  pretty  foot! 

A  windy  day  is  thus  regarded  by  the  women: 

' '  The  devil  sends  the  wicked  wind 

That  swirls  our  skirts  knee-high; 
But  God  is  just,  and  he  sends  the  dust 
That  blows  in  the  bad  man's  eye." 

And  a  rainy  day  is  judged  from  the  men's  standpoint: 

"There's  magic  in  a  pretty  foot 

And  well  the  ladies  know  it ; 
And  she  who  has  a  pretty  one 
Is  pretty  sure  to  show  it. ' ' 

Artists  rave  over  pretty  feet,  sculptors  delight  to  model  them 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  263 

and  poets  have  sung  their  praises;  even  Tennyson    speaks    of 
ladies'  feet  as  " sunny  gems  on  the  English  green." 

"Her  feet  beneath  her  petticoat 
Like  little  mice  stole  in  and  out 

As  if  they  feared  the  light ; 
But,  oh,  she  dances  such  a  way ! 
No  sun  upon  an  Easter-day 
Is  half  so  fine  a  sight!" 

(Sir  John  Suckling.) 

Whether  we  individually  prefer  the  tall  girl  or  the  small 
girl,  the  fair  or  the  brunette,  the  delicate  or  the  robust,  the  spare 
or  corpulent,  the  pensive  or  the  frivolous,  the  demure  or  the 
saucy,  the  reserved  or  the  gushing  woman,  there  is  one  thing  on 
which  all  virile,  manly  men  agree, — that  the  naked  woman  is  the 
crowning  jewel  of  Creation!  And  the  artists  and  poets  of  all 
times,  and  the  men  of  all  nations  and  of  all  climes  pay  homage 
at  her  shrine,  and  agree  that  to  portray  her  in  her  various  moods 
and  attitudes  is  the  highest  form  of  art. 

The  third  characteristic  of  Beauty  is  Motion. 

In  all  times  the  best  display  of  the  charms  of  women  was 
considered  to  be  when  they  accompanied  the  display  of  form  with 
the  motions  of  the  dance. 

Motion,  as  an  element  of  works  of  art,  is  best  seen  in  the 
dance,  especially  on  the  modern  stage  as  danced  by  Isadora  Dun- 
can, Gertrude  Hoffman,  Maude  Allen,  and  many  others. 

Terpsichore,  one  of  the  nine  Greek  muses,  the  Muse  of  the 
Dance,  is  generally  represented  nude,  because  artists  and  the  lov- 
ers of  the  beautiful  know  that  the  highest  perfection  of  the  dance 
requires  nude  or  nearly  nude  women. 

Originally  dances  were  ceremonials  of  a  religious  signifi- 
cance, and  most  heathen  temples  even  now  have  slave  girls  or 
attendants  who  perform  the  sacred  dances. 

When  Hesiod  wrote  the  Greek  Bible,  he  told  of  his  inspira- 
tion: "Begin  we  to  sing  with  the  Heliconian  Muses,  who 
with  delicate  feet  dance  about  the  violet-hued  fount  and  altars 
of  the  mighty  Son  of  Cronos  (Zeus) ;  and  likewise  having  bathed 
their  soft  skins  *  *  *  are  wont  to  institute  on  the  top  of  Helicon 
choral  dances  *  *." 

The  religious  dances  of  nearly  all  ancient  and  of  many  mod- 


264 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


ern  people  were  originally  attempts  to  imitate  and  exalt  sexual 
delights,  because  all  primitive  religions  were  forms  of  the  wor- 
ship of  sex.  Such  are,  for  instance,  the  Almeh  dances,  the  Nautch 
dances,  and  similar  Oriental  dances,  which  were  introduced  to 
the  notice  of  American  audiences  through  the  various  ''World's 
Fairs"  held  in  this  country  in  recent  years,  and  which  are  popu- 
larly known  as  Couchee-Couchee  dances. 

In  ancient  Egypt,  and  in  fact  in  all  the  adjacent  lands,  the 
musicians  were  women  trained  in  the  art;  they  went  naked  from 
childhood  on,  so  that  nakedness  in  public  did  not  embarrass 
them;  many  of  the  psalms  of  David  are  inscribed  or  dedicated 


Fig.  106. — "Danse   du  Ventre, "   from   a    painting  by  Bedt. 

"to  the  chief  musician,"  who,  in  all  probability,  was  the  leader 
of  the  chorus  of  musicians  and  singers  and  like  them — a  naked 
woman  or  girl.  Dances,  also,  were  executed  mainly  by  naked 
girls;  the  dances  were  similar  to  those  performed  by  Ferida,  an 
Egyptian  dancer  at  the  Egyptian  theatre,  Chicago  World's  Fair, 
which  was  a  marvelously  beautiful  presentation  of  sexual  or- 
gasm, not  at  all  even  hinted  at  by  the  many  vulgar  imitators  who 
now  perform  such  dances  at  "stag  parties"  in  many  clubs. 

The  Almeh  (plural  Awalim)  dancers  are  generally  also  ac- 
complished singers;  in  fact,  from  ancient  times  until  now,  Egyp- 
tian musicians  usually  danced  while  they  played  or  sang.  In 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP 


265 


modern  times  the  Almees  (or  Awalim)  perform  without  being 
naked,  and  they  should  not  be  mistaken  for  the  lower  grade 
Ghawazees  (singular  Ghazeeyeh)  who  are  strolling  bands  of  danc- 
ing girls,  who  dance  erotic  dances,  and  practice,  as  a  side  line, 
prostitution,  when  they  are  desired  by  a  man.  The  better  class 
Egyptian  people  consider  their  dances  improper  (Fig.  107). 

Most  people  have  national  dances,  often  having  a  religious 
symbolic  meaning.  Probably  no  people  ever  had  cleaner  and 
more  beautiful  dances  than  the  ancient  Greeks,  and  moderns  have 


Fig.  107. — Egyptian  Ghazeeyeh  dance, 
from  a  painting. 


Fig.  108. — A  Ghazeeyeh  dancer,  from 
a  painting  by   Gerome. 


imitated  and  reintroduced  the  ancient  Greek  dances  to  the  de- 
light of  millions  of  spectators. 

Isadora  Duncan  was  one  of  the  first,  and  most  successful  of 
modern  " Greek"  Dancers.  She  adopted  a  number  of  children 
whom  she  brought  up,  like  the  ancient  dancers,  in  a  condition  of 
nature.  Her  idea  was  that  they  should  act  naturally  in  the  nearly 
naked  dances  she  taught  them. 

Orgies  were  certain  rites  in  the  worship  of  Dionysus  in  an- 
cient Greece.  These  rites  were  participated  in  only  by  women 
who  met  in  certain  holy  places  in  the  woods,  nearly  naked  or 


266  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

dressed  only  in  fawn  skins,  their  hair  hanging  loose  over  their 
shoulders;  they  brandished  the  thyrsus  or  sceptre  sacred  to  Di- 
onysus, a  staff  with  a  figure  of  a  bunch  of  grapes  or  a  pine-cone 
at  the  end,  beat  cymbals  and  danced.  They  danced  until  they 
worked  themselves  into  a  state  of  frenzy,  even  to  mad  excite- 
ment and  convulsions.  Then  at  night  they  killed  a  sacrificial  bull 
by  tearing  him  to  pieces  with  their  teeth,  after  which  they  de- 
voured the  raw  flesh.  In  early  Greek  times  the  sacrificial  vic- 
tim was  a  man,  not  a  bull ;  in  either  case,  an  important  feature  of 
these  orgies  was  the  adoration  of  the  phallus,  or  penis,  of  the 
victim ;  or  of  the  image  of  this  organ  which  was  used  as  an  altar 
figure  representing  the  procreative  god;  the  celebrants  of  these 
orgies  were  called  maenads  or  bacchantes. 

The  Corybantes  were  dancers  who  officiated  at  the  temples 
of  the  goddess  Rhea  Cybele  in  Phrygia;  her  priests  castrated 
themselves,  and  some  of  the  younger  ones  joined  in  the  orgiastic 
dances,  with  the  blood  still  dripping  from  their  mutilated 
phalluses. 

All  Greek  dances  probably  to  a  certain  extent  had  a  phallic 
or  sexual  significance ;  they  pictured  the  relationship  of  the  sexes. 
When  danced  as  by  the  maenads  it  produced  excitement  approach- 
ing convulsions;  in  camp  meetings,  especially  among  negroes, 
the  walking  around,  the  clapping  of  hands,  the  jumping  and  shout- 
ing, results  in  similar  ecstasies  as  in  the  religious  dances  in  honor 
of  Bacchus  or  Cybele;  it  may  approach  to  madness. 

The  ancient  Jews  danced  religious  dances.  Ps.  cxlix,  2,  3: 
"Let  Israel  rejoice  in  him  that  made  him;  let  the  children  of 
Zion  be  joyful  in  their  king.  Let  them  praise  his  name  in  the 
dance ;  let  them  sing  praises  unto  him  with  the  timbrel  and  harp." 
This  exhortation  to  praise  the  Creator  with  dance,  meant  to 
dance  the  erotic  or  sexual  dances  common  to  all  Oriental  people. 
Even  David  danced,  II  Sam.  vi,  14:  "And  David  danced  before 
the  Lord  with  all  his  might;  *  *  *  and  Michal,  Saul's  daugh- 
ter, looked  through  a  window,  and  saw  King  David  leaping  and 
dancing  before  the  Lord;  and  she  despised  him." 

Salome,  the  daughter  of  Herodias,  danced  a  dance  similar  to 
the  couchee-couchee,  the  ages-old  dance  of  the  Orient:  "But  when 
Herod's  birthday  was  kept,  the  daughter  of  Herodias  danced  be- 
fore them,  and  pleased  Herod"  (Matt,  xiv,  6).  At  the  present 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  267 

time  such  dances  are  common  in  various  parts  of  the  world  (Fig. 
109). 

In  Madagascar,  for  instance,  when  the  men  are  away  on  a  war 
expedition,  the  women  spend  much  of  their  time  in  dancing,  for 
they  believe  that  their  dancing  will  inspire  their  men  with  courage. 
North  American  Indians  have  their  war  and  other  ceremonial 
dances.  The  Zunis  have  their  snake-dance.  The  national  dance 
of  the  Kamchadales  is  one  of  the  wildest  dances  known;  it  is 
danced  by  men  and  women  and  they  dance  until  every  muscle 
quivers.  Here  also,  the  dance  is  phallic ;  and  there  is  a  deliberate 
effort  to  show  its  sexual  significance,  by  making  the  dance  a  rude 
representation  of  sexual  passion,  which  is  called  obscene  by  Euro- 
pean observers.  And,  of  course,  all  who  have  seen  the  cancan 
danced,  can  form  some  idea  of  the  wild  phallic  dances  of  other 
people. 

The  " whirling  dervishes"  of  the  Turks  perform  a  similar 
wild  dance,  which  often  eventuates  in  convulsions,  or  in  madness 
during  which  they  stab  themselves  until  the  loss  of  blood  makes 
them  fall  in  a  faint. 

Even  in  the  early  Christian  churches  the  members  of  the  choir 
danced  religious  dances  while  they  sang.  Some  of  the  early 
church-fathers  said  that  the  angels  always  dance.  St.  Augustine 
discouraged  this,  and  said:  "Melius  est  fodere  quam  saltare" — 
"It  is  better  to  dig  (cultivate  the  soil)  than  to  dance." 

Not  knowing  the  reason  for  the  condemnation  of  these  reli- 
gious dances  of  the  early  church,  later  preachers  and  churches 
applied  this  to  all  dances,  also  to  those  of  a  purely  social,  innocent 
and  harmless  kind,  and  condemn  dancing  as  a  social  pastime  as  a 
sin! 

Our  social  dances  are  of  an  entirely  different  character,  and 
there  is  little  or  no  harm  in  them.  They  are  a  pleasant  method 
for  young  people  to  become  acquainted  and  to  enjoy  themselves, 
and  the  ecclesiastical  thunderbolts  hurled  at  them  by  some  fanat- 
ical preachers  are  much  of  the  nature  of  Don  Quixote's  charge 
against  the  vanes  of  the  windmill;  they  are  the  sour  attempts  of 
bigoted  kill-joys  to  reform  the  world  to  their  way  of  thinking.  It 
reminds  of  a  clever  saying  by  a  recent  author:  "Curious  thing 
about  reformers.  They  don't  seem  to  get  such  a  lot  of  pleasure 
out  of  their  labors  unless  the  ones  they  reform  resist  and  suf- 
fer, and  show  a  proper  sense  of  their  degradation.  I  bet,  a  lot 


268 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


of  reformers  would  quit  tomorrow  if  they  knew  their  work  wasn't 
going  to  bother  people  any." 

In  the  painting  by  Gamier,  entitled  " Borgia  S' Amuse,"  (Bor- 
gia amusing  himself)  is  shown  a  form  of  entertainment  once  al- 
most universal — dancing  by  naked  girls.  Browning,  the  popular 
poet,  appreciated  the  luxury  of  having  naked  girls  about,  as  is 
apparent  from  this  quotation  from  one  of  his  poems : 

"You  found  he  ate  his  supper  in  a  room 
Blazing  with  lights ;  four  Titians  on  the  wall, 
And  twenty  naked  girls  to  change  his  plate." 


Fig.  109. — The  customary  attire  of  a  Salome  or  Couchee-Couchee  dancer  on  the 

modern  stage. 

In  most  countries,  before  Christianity  had  introduced  its  ig- 
noble conceptions  in  regard  to  nudity  of  body,  the  dance  was  exe- 
cuted by  naked  girls.  This  was  the  case  in  Greece  and  Rome. 

Caracalla  was  fond  of  giving  lavish  entertainments  on  the 
Island  of  Capri,  at  which  the  dancers  were  beautiful  Spanish  danc- 
ing girls;  to  show  his  utter  disregard  for  expense,  he  had  these 
slaves  thrown  over  the  cliffs  into  the  sea  after  the  applause  that 
greeted  their  dance  ceased.  More  economical-minded  entertain- 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  269 

ers  put  their  slaves  up  at  auction,  and  realized  handsome  profits 
from  the  excitement  produced  by  their  dancing. 

In  Persia,  Turkey,  Egypt,  India,  Burmah,  and  other  Oriental 
countries  dancing  girls  are  either  naked  or  only  very  lightly  clad. 

The  warm-blooded  inhabitants  of  Southern  Europe  are  fond 
of  dancing,  and  the  Spanish  dances  are  recognized  as  most  beau- 
tiful to  this  day.  In  rural  Spain  there  is  a  popular  dance,  during 
which  the  performers  throw  off  one  garment  after  another  until 
they  dance  in  a  state  of  nudity;  both  sexes  indulge  in  this  dance, 
but  as  far  as  I  could  learn  it  is  not  accompanied  by  erotic  demon- 
strations among  the  spectators,  only  the  beauty  of  the  dancers  and 
the  gracefulness  of  the  motions  being  taken  cognizance  of. 

Professional  dancers  of  our  own  times  are  as  nearly  naked 
as  conventional  rules  will  allow  (Fig.  109) ;  and  our  ballets,  and 
Amazonian  marches,  our  dances  at  the  public  pageants  in  our 
parks,  display  the  female  form  as  much  as  possible  without  any 
part  actually  being  naked,  because  they  are  still  covered  with  flesh- 
colored  tights.  No  one  can  have  any  true  conception  of  the  sup- 
pleness and  beauty  of  the  human  body  who  has  not  seen  naked 
girls  swaying  and  undulating  in  the  rhythmic  movements  of  the 
dance;  but  the  dances  should  be  clean  like  the  Sailor's  Hornpipe 
or  the  Highland  Fling,  and  not  of  the  vulgar  Couchee-couchee 
type. 

ART  AND  ETHICS 

The  degree  of  culture  of  an  individual  or  a  community  can 
fairly  be  judged  by  their  views  in  regard  to  the  Nude  in  Art. 
Up  to  about  forty  years  ago  St.  Louis  was  but  an  overgrown  vil- 
lage, with  all  the  narrow  prejudices  of  a  rural  community.  To 
the  St.  Louisans  of  those  days  the  gods  and  goddesses  of  ancient 
Greece  and  Home  were  shamelessly  naked;  and  when  works  of 
the  Nude  in  Art  were  brought  to  St.  Louis  fairs  or  exhibitions 
they  were  either  excluded  from  the  art  galleries,  or  they  .caused  a 
storm  of  indignant  protest  in  the  daily  papers  from  a  shocked 
and  puritanical  public. 

Then  came  a  series  of  World  Fairs — Philadelphia,  New  Or- 
leans, Chicago,  Buffalo,  Omaha,  St.  Louis,  etc.,  which  were  vis- 
ited by  millions  of  Americans  whose  views  in  regard  to  art  were 
broadened  and  chastened  thereby  (Fig.  110). 

American  cities  ceased  to  be  provincial  and  became  cosmo- 


270 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


politan.    The  pretty  naked  nymph  on  Union  Avenue,  in  St.  Louis, 
familiarly  known  as  "  Carrie  Kingsbury,"  ceased  to  arouse  ad- 


Fig.  110. — "Triumph   of  Apollo,"   at  Festival  Hall,  Louisiana  Purchase  Exposition, 

St.  Louis,  1904. 


Fig.  111.— "The  Naked  Truth,"  by 
Wandschneider.  Located  in  Reservoir 
Park,  St.  Louis. 


Fig.  112. — Conventional      Egyptian      art, 
from  temple  at  Karnak,  Egypt. 


verse  comment,  and  she  was  less  and  less  frequently  garbed  over- 
night in  a  flannel  costume;  and  then  came  "The  Naked  Truth" 
in  Reservoir  Park  (Fig.  111).  While  the  "Naked  Truth"  is  not 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  271 

beautiful,  she  has  the  supreme  merit  that  she  is  candidly  naked, 
and  she  has  made  St.  Louisans  familiar  with,  and  tolerant  of 
representations  of  the  Nude  in  Art  as  an  element  of  urban  dec- 
oration. 

Among  the  ancient  Egyptians  the  mode  of  representing  the 
human  body  was  prescribed  by  their  religion,  and  while  rich 
women  went  about  naked  or  clad  only  in  a  veil-like  garment,  the 
figures  of  the  gods  and  goddesses  were  rendered  in  a  conven- 
tional stiff  position,  also  clothed  in  a  clinging  garment  that  fully 
displayed  the  figure  as  in  this  sculpture  from  the  temple  of  Kar- 
nak,  Egypt  (Fig.  112). 

But  art  became  art  in  the  fullest  sense  only  when  the  human 
body  was  represented  for  the  sake  of  giving  pleasure,  and  this 
mode  of  representing  the  human  body  began  in  Greece. 

Greek  art  took  an  upward  tendency  in  development  when 
Bupalus  and  Athenis  lived  (about  540  B.C.)  in  the  Island  of  Chios. 
They  were  Greek  sculptors,  but  they  produced  only  draped  fig- 
ures, because  art  had  not  advanced  to  the  delineation  of  nude 
figures.  Even  the  "Three  Graces,"  now  always  nude,  were  at 
that  time  draped. 

Here  is  shown  one  of  the  early,  or  archaic,  Greek  works  of 
art— "The  Haircutter  of  Tanagra"  (Fig.  113).  At  Tanagra  a 
lot  of  terra  cotta  figurines  were  found  which  represented  various 
subjects  not  connected  with  temple  or  tomb  art,  i.  e.,  art  which 
represented  homely  episodes  for  amusement  and  pleasure  merely ; 
when  this  development  in  art  had  been  reached,  art  began  to  be 
art  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word. 

It  was  a  long  and  tedious  way  from  the  crude  art  of  primi- 
tive men,  as  found  in  the  earliest  art  of  the  cave-dwellers,  or  even 
from  the  figurines  of  Tanagra  or  Nampa,  to  the  statues  of  Greece 
in  the  height  of  its  culture  and  art. 

Ruskin  said:  "Not  a  single  antique  statue  excels  the  Venus 
of  Melos  (Fig.  114)  and  she  has  nothing  notable  except  dignity 
and  simplicity."  This  is  generally  conceded  to  be  the  best  exam- 
ple of  "high  art,"  the  most  majestic  representation  of  woman's 
form.  "High  art  consists  neither  in  altering  nor  in  improving 
nature ;  but  in  seeking  throughout  nature  for  whatever  things  are 
pure;  in  displaying  to  the  utmost  of  the  artist's  powers  such  love- 
liness as  is  in  them,  and  in  directing  the  thoughts  of  others  to 


272 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


them  by  winning  art  and  gentle  emphasis."    This  statue  belongs 
to  the  Louvre,  in  Paris. 

'  To  an  artist's  true  and  highly  trained  instinct  the  human  body 
is  the  loveliest  of  all  objects;  *  *  *  the  ancient  Greeks  drew 
the  body  from  pure  delight  in  it,  and  with  a  knowledge  of  it  living. 
The  Venus  of  Milo  and  the  Laocoon  (Fig.  115)  have  the  forms 
their  designers  truly  liked  to  see  in  men  and  women.  *  *  *  The 
Greeks  learned  to  know  the  body  from  the  living  body;  their 
treatment  of  the  body  is  faithful,  modest  and  natural."  The 


Fig.    113.— "The    Hair-Cutter    of    Tana-      Fig.  114.— "Venus  of  Milo."     Antique; 
gra;"    Archaic    Greek    art.  at  the  Louvre,  Paris. 

Laocoon  group  belongs  to  the  Museum  of  the  Vatican,  Home. 

1  *  Michelangelo  and  Raphael  learned  to  know  the  human  body 
essentially  from  the  corpse,  and  had  no  delight  in  it,  but  great 
pride  in  showing  that  they  knew  all  its  mechanism;  they  drew 
the  body  from  knowledge  of  it  dead." 

In  the  Sistine  Chapel  of  the  Vatican,  the  pope's  private 
chapel,  where  popes  are  elected  and  the  ceremony  of  installation 
into  their  exalted  office  takes  place,  there  is  the  most  celebrated 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


273 


work  representing  the  Nude  in  Art  in  the  whole  world.  It  is  the 
Last  Judgment  by  Michelangelo  (Fig.  116).  This  work  was 
ordered  by  Pope  Julius  I,  and  continued  under  Popes  Leo  X, 


Fig.  115. — "Laocoon  Group."  Antique;  at  the  Vatican,  Rome. 


Fig.  116. — "Last  Judgment,"  by  Michelangelo;  at  the  Sistine  Chapel,  Vatican,  Rome. 

Adrian  V,   Clement  VII,   and    finished    under    Pope   Paul  III. 
Michelangelo  worked  at  it  for  15  years. 

The  accentuation  by  Michelangelo  of  anatomical  details  that 
can  not  be  seen  in  the  living  subject  covered  with  integument, 
has  been  the  basis  of  reproach  to  the  art  of  this  great  artist ;  but 


274 


SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 


there  seems  to  be  a  reasonable  excuse  for  this  style  of  drawing. 
Michelangelo  was  accustomed  to  draw  figures  of  gigantic  size,  to 
be  viewed  from  great  distances,  as,  for  instance,  the  figures 
against  the  ceiling  of  the  Sistine  Chapel;  if  drawn  natural,  the 
details  would  have  been  practically  lost  at  that  distance,  and  the 
figures  would  have  appeared  flat  and  lifeless.  The  artist  there- 
fore exaggerated  the  details,  just  as  the  ancient  artist  did  who 
modeled  the  Farnese  Hercules.  But  working  in  this  manner  for 
15  years,  it  was  difficult  to  avoid  the  style,  even  when  the  work 
of  art  was  destined  for  a  nearer  view  and  hence  we  see  it  also  in 


Fig.  117.— "Moses,"    by    Michelangelo.      Tomb    of    Pope    Julius    II,    Rome. 

Moses  which  is  a  prominent  feature  of  the  tomb  of  Julius  II,  in 
Rome,  standing  on  a  level  with  the  beholder  (Fig.  117). 

''Not  all  modern  artists,  however,  indulged  in  a  vain  display 
of  anatomical  knowledge.  Correggio  and  Tintoretto,  and  others, 
represented  the  human  form  with  all  the  grace  and  purity  of  the 
ancient  Greeks. 

"Female  Beauty  can  be  found  more  perfect  than  that  of  the 
male,  and  artists  paint  and  carve  it  fearlessly,  with  all  right  and 
natural  qualities.  A  beautiful  woman  is  the  simplest  of  lovely 
veracities  and  the  representation  of  this  highest  type  of  beauty 
is  also  the  most  complex  of  human  arts." 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


275 


In  a  book  entitled  "Tracts  for  Young  People"  by  the  Kev. 
Furniss,  of  Cork,  Ireland,  there  was  a  story  told  of  a  female 
saint  who  imagined  that  she  had  been  permitted  by  God  to  make 
a  personal  inspection  of  hell,  and  she  told  of  seeing  a  young 
girl  encased  in  a  close-fitting  suit  of  boiler  iron  and  lying  in  a 
fire  which  made  her  suit  red-hot,  so  that  her  blood  boiled  and 
sizzled  and  hissed  as  the  steam  from  it  escaped  from  her  ears 
and  nostrils;  and  she  was  condemned  to  lie  there  forever  and 
ever  (by  a  "God  of  infinite  Love  and  Compassion!")  because  she 
liad  seen  herself  naked  in  the  bath!  What  a  difference  between 
the  ravings  of  such  ignorant  and  insane  fanatics  who  believe  such 


Fig.  118.— "Love,"  by  Evelyn  B. 
Longman. 


Fig.  119.— "Springtime  of  LoVe,"  by 
Kiemsch. 


vagaries,  and  the  educated  popes  who  employed  Michelangelo  to 
paint  the  frescoes  of  the  Sistine  Chapel ;  or  the  Bible,  which  tells 
us  that  Adam  and  Eve  were  both  naked  and  "were  not  ashamed!" 
Opponents  of  the  Nude  in  Art  claim  that  the  pleasure  we  ex- 
perience in  seeing  such  works  of  art  is  due  to  our  sexual  natures, 
and  say  this  as  if  it  proved  beyond  doubt  that  such  works  of  art 
must  be  evil  (Fig.  118).  Suppose  we  admit  that  our  delight  in 
seeing  the  Nude  in  Art  is  due  to  sex  and  our  sexual  natures,  yet 
we  are  taught  that  nearly  all  progress,  physical,  intellectual  and 


276  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

ethical,  during  evolution,  was  largely  due,  directly  or  indirectly, 
to  sex  and  sex  emotions. 

Sexual  emotions  and  desires  are  neither  base  nor  wrong! 
We  read  in  the  Bible:  "So  God  created  man  in  his  own  image, 
in  the  image  of  God  created  he  them.  And  God  saw  everything 
that  he  had  made,  and  behold  it  was  very  good!  And  they  were 
both  naked,  the  man  and  his  wife,  and  were  not  ashamed."  And 
why  should  we  be  ashamed  of  our  sex — the  one  great  thing  that 
makes  us  God-like!  That  enables  us  also  to  become — creators! 

Milton,  in  Paradise  Lost,  calls  this  nakedness  of  our  first 
parents — "that  first  naked  glory." 

In  saying  that  nudity  is  always  and  necessarily  evil,  and 
that  reference  to  sex  is  base,  the  views  of  some  of  the  early  church- 
fathers  are  perpetuated,  for  they  claimed  that  God  made  a  great 
mistake  when  he  created  mankind  male  and  female.  Justin,  Greg- 
ory of  Nyssa,  Augustine  and  other  church-fathers  regretted  that 
Adam  yielded  to  his  passionate  desire  for  Eve,  and  held  that  if 
Adam  had  abstained  from  sexual  pleasure  with  Eve,  he  would 
have  effectually  rebuked  God  and  would  have  compelled  him  to 
invent  some  harmless  mode  of  reproduction  that  would  not  have 
required  the  co-operation  of  the  sexes  and  thus  the  world  would 
have  been  peopled  with  passionless  and  innocent  beings. 

Most  of  us  will  agree  with  God,  when  he  declared  that  what 
he  had  made  was  "very  good,"  and  we  will  therefore  admit  that 
the  sexual  emotions  are  due  to  an  impulse  implanted  in  human 
hearts  by  the  Creator  for  the  benefit  and  pleasure  of  mankind 
(Fig.  119). 

Addison  wrote: 

"When  love's  well-timed,  'tis  not  a  fault  to  love; 
The  strong,  the  brave,  the  virtuous  and  the  wise 
Sink  in  the  soft  captivity  together." 

And  Solomon  wrote:  "Live  joyfully  with  the  wife  whom  thou 
lovest,  for  that  is  thy  share  in  this  life  and  in  the  labor  that  thou 
takest  under  the  sun"  (Eccl.  ix,  9). 

If  nudity  were  more  frequently  seen  in  our  daily  lives  it 
would  lose  whatever  it  may  now  have  of  suggestiveness ;  nudity 
to  the  extent  that  it  suggests  erotic  thoughts,  does  so  in  conse- 
quence of  perverted  teachings  that  have  been  transmitted  through 
many  generations. 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP 


277 


1  'The  shame  of  human  loveliness  which  sees  evil  in  its  por- 
trayal, is  older  than  Comstockism  and  W-C-T-U-ism.  Paul  IV 
(Paul  the  Prude)  saw  shame  and  indecency  in  Michelangelo's  great 
fresco  of  the  Last  Judgment  where  others  saw  only  reverence 
for  Beauty."  The  naked  body  is  in  itself  no  more  impure  in 
nature,  or  in  a  work  of  art,  than  it  is  on  the  walls  of  the  pope's 
private  chapel,  the  Sistine  Chapel, — "to  the  soul  that  rightly 
thinks." 

"We  should  inculcate  in  our  youths  a  profound  reverence  for 
the  human  form  divine;  so  long  as  art  endures — so  long  as  there 
are  souls  to  rebel  against  the  ugly  and  impure,  to  welcome  what 


Fig.   120. — "Adam  and  Eve."     Ceiling  in  church  at  Hildesheim,  Germany. 

is  lovely  and  pure  with  eager  hearts,  earth  will  not  lack  sons  and 
daughters  who  will  refuse  to  cover  beauty  with  rags  of  shame — to 
whom  a  beautiful  body  will  be  sacred  as  a  temple  of  God." 

The  Edict  of  Jerusalem  in  the  IV  Century  decreed  that  all 
persons  must  be  naked  when  they  are  being  baptized — a  rule 
which  still  prevails  in  the  Russian  branch  of  the  Greek  church 
(Fig.  121). 

This  (Fig.  122)  is  a  painting  of  the  Baptism  of  Christ  by 
Verrocchio.  If  nearly  one  hundred  millions  of  Christians  find 
nudity  an  essential  condition  for  one  of  their  holiest  sacraments, 
then,  surely,  nudity  can  not  be  as  bad  as  many  other  Christians 
pretend  it  to  be. 


278 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


Jesus  is  also  represented  naked  on  the  cross,  in  paintings  of 
the  Kesurrection,  etc.,  and  millions  of  crucifixes  with  the  naked 
Jesus  are  venerated  throughout  the  world.  And  in  the  Pope's 


Fig.  121. — "Episode  in  Life  of  St.  Firmin,"  by  Gamier. 


Fig.   122.— "Baptism    of     Christ,"     by 
Verrocchi"1,   in  Academy,   Florence,   Italy. 


Fig.    123. — "Christ,"    from    the    Last 
Judgment ;   Michelangelo,  Vatican,  Rome. 


own  chapel,  Jesus  is  shown  naked,  when  he  comes  to  judge  the 
dead  and  the  living,  on  the  Last  Judgment  Day  (Fig.  123). 

If  people  can  look  upon  the  naked  form  of  a  Jesus,  or  even  of 
a  Magdalen,  without  feeling  lascivious  emotions,  they  could  do 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


279 


the  same  with  any  other  naked  figure,  decently  presented,  if  they 
had  been  properly  taught  to  consider  it  pure. 

During  the  middle  ages  nearly  every  church  had  a  statue  or 
a  painting  of  a  naked  Adam  and  Eve,  probably  to  inculcate  the 
essential  purity  and  holiness  of  the  human  body.  The  celebrated 
altar-piece  by  the  Van  Eycks,— "The  Adoration  of  the  Lamb" 
had  an  Adam  and  an  Eve,  both  naked,  one  on  the  rig;ht  panel  and 
the  other  on  the  left.  The  "Eve"  here  shown  (Fig.  124)  still 
exists  in  the  Cathedral  at  Schleswig,  Germany;  and  on  the  ceil- 


Fig.  124. — "Eve,"  from  High  Altar  Fig.  125. — "Adam  and  Eve,"  from 
of  Cathedral  in  Schleswig,  Germany,  the  "Death-Dance  of  Basle."  The  text 
made  in  A.D.  1520.  explains  why  pictures  of  this  kind  were  so 

common  in  medieval  days. 

ing  of  the  church  at  Hildcshcim,  Germany  (Fig.  120),  may  be 
seen  an  Adam  and  Eve,  in  a  fresco  painting,  both  naked. 

A  celebrated  edition  of  the  Bible,  the  Kurfuersten-Bibel,  con- 
tains an  engraving  of  Adam  and  Eve. 

Those  who  have  studied  the  subject,  "know  that  the  Nude, 
presented  purely  for  the  sake  of  Beauty,  as  most  of  it  is  rep- 
resented, demoralizes  nobody's  mind.  It  is  the  straining  to  con- 
ceal the  beautiful  Nude,  and  to  suppress  it,  which  injures." 

It  is  the  evil  imagination  which  suggests  the  thought  of  im- 
propriety. Unfortunately  Macaulay's  saying  that  a  "nice  man  is 
one  who  has  nasty  thoughts"  is  only  too  true  and  some  of  these 


280  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

"nice  men"  are  the  chief  causes  of  the  harm  done  by  some  kinds 
of  the  Nude  in  Art. 

The  propriety  of  the  Nude  in  Art  depends  largely  on  the  men- 
tal attitude  and  the  degree  of  education  of  the  observer,  rather 
than  upon  the  representations  of  the  nude  themselves;  the  pro- 
priety or  impropriety  of  such  art  is  mainly  subjective — not  ob- 
jective. 

"A  beautiful  statue  or  painting  carries  no  bad  suggestion, 
except  as  the  evil  thought  is  always  present  in  some  minds.  Per- 
fect familiarity  with  nudes  destroys  that  imagination,  which  does 
so  much  harm." 

The  disastrous  effects  of  wrong  education  about  the  Nude 
in  Art  and  the  Nude  in  Nature  is  seen  in  women  who  have  been 
brought  up  with  too  puritanical  views.  Many  a  marriage  is 
wrecked  because  the  wives  do  not  realize  the  full  difference  be- 
tween the  lovers  who  courted  them  and  the  husbands  who  married 
them  and  who  are  entitled  to  see  them  naked.  To  too  many  women 
the  husband  remains  merely  a  "man"  in  this  regard.  1  recall  a 
number  of  such  tragedies ;  for  instance,  one  of  a  sober  industrious 
man,  who,  after  marriage,  began  to  drink  heavily  and  stay  out 
late  at  night.  He  excused  himself  by  the  fact  that  his  wife  ex- 
cluded him  from  her  bedroom.  The  final  outcome  was  a  divorce 
and  the  death  of  the  husband  from  dissipation  and  tuberculosis. 

This  represents  the  chiton  (Fig.  126),  the  house  dress  of 
women  in  classic  Greece ;  occasionally  this  dress  was  even  simpler, 
as  in  Athens,  where  the  women  were  called  * '  phaenomerides " 
or  the  "bare-thighed"  because  this  garment,  open  on  one  side, 
reached  only  to  the  upper  part  of  the  thighs ;  and  Aelian  said  of 
Melita,  the  wife  of  Phocion,  that  "she  showed  herself  clothed  in 
her  chastity,  that  was  all  her  ornament;"  and  we  agree  after  a 
lapse  of  twenty  centuries,  that 

"Loveliness  needs  not  the  aid  of  ornament 
But  is,  when  unadorn'd,  adorn 'd  the  most." 

Exposure  of  the  body  to  sight  was  not  considered  to  be  im- 
proper in  Greece  or  Kome,  until  after  the  beginning  of  the  Chris- 
tian era  (Fig.  127).  St.  Chrysostom  said  of  the  Roman  ladies— 
"they  did  not  hesitate  or  blush  to  appear  perfectly  naked  in  the 
presence  of  the  public  at  the  theatres;"  and  as  decency  is  merely 
conforming  to  custom  or  fashion,  we  can  not  say  that  Greek  or 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


281 


Roman  ladies  were  indecent  in  following  the  general  custom  of 
their  times. 

It  is  related  of  ancient  Greek  women  that  "if  they  had  any 
particularly  beautiful  features  of  the  body,  they  left  them  naked 
that  they  might  be  admired." 

The  celebrated  Venus  Callipygis  is  said  by  ancient  writers 
to  have  been  modeled  after  two  sisters  "who  were  celebrated 
throughout  all  Greece  for  the  beauty  of  their  buttocks."  This 
figure  is  often  referred  to  as  the  "Venus  with  the  untranslatable 
name;"  callipygis  means  "with  beautiful  buttocks."  The  female 
buttocks  were  an  object  of  admiration  and  even  of  adoration 
among  the  ancient  Romans;  Petronius  (I  Century  A.D.)  referred  to 
this  secret  buttock-worship :  puellam  invitare  ad  pygisiaca  sacra 


Fig.  126. — The   Chiton.     Home  dress 
of  Greek  women  in  classic  times. 


Fig.  127. — "Summer    Bath    at    Pompeii," 
from  painting  by  Bouguereau. 


(to  invite  a  girl  to  the  sacred  rites  appertaining  to  the  buttocks) 
which  consisted  probably,  like  all  adoration,  in  kissing  them. 

A  revolt  against  all  Pagan  customs  was  a  characteristic  of 
early  Christianity;  I  have  already  stated  that  most  of  the  early 
Christians  were  slaves,  or  poor;  they  were  naturally  incensed 
against  the  rich,  the  fashionable,  the  educated  and  the  refined 
upper  classes.  As  it  was  a  feature  of  Greek  and  Roman  life  to 


282 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


rejoice  in  the  beauty  of  the  human  body,  the  ascetic  Christians 
went  to  the  other  extreme,  of  hiding  this  beauty  and  being  ashamed 
of  it;  and  by  a  monstrous  perversion  of  religion  and  morality  it 
came  to  be  believed  that  a  reluctance  to  show  the  beauty  of  the 
body  was  a  particularly  virtuous  and  modest  act.  This  fanatical 
pruriency  became  so  marked  a  feature  of  early  Christianity,  that 
to  mortify  them,  the  Christian  maidens  and  women  were  often 
condemned  to  become  slaves  in  the  public  houses  of  prostitution 
(which  were  owned  and  operated  by  the  state)  where  all  the 
\\romen  were  kept  naked  for  the  inspection  of  the  male  visitors 
who  could  choose  any  of  the  inmates  that  appealed  to  their  taste. 
The  martyrs  were  usually  stripped  naked  before  being  driven 
into  the  arenas  to  be  crucified,  or  to  be  torn  to  pieces  by  the  wild 


Fig.  128. — "Three    Graces,"    a    painting 
by  Regnault. 


Fig.   129. — "Education,"   by  Isidor 
Kuntz. 


animals,  that  the  exposure  of  their  bodies  to  the  gaze  of  the  as- 
sembled multitude  might  add  keener  suffering  to  their  physical 
tortures  (Fig.  130). 

Education  (Fig.  129)  is  doing  away  with  the  prudery  of  ages, 
and  we  are  commencing  to  appreciate  the  words  of  the  poet : 
"Oh,  what  a  pure  and  sacred  thing 

Is  Beauty,  curtain 'd  from  the  sight 
Of  the  gross  world,  illumining 

One  only  mansion  with  her  light." 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


283 


"  Why  is  it,"  asked  a  lady,  "that  so  many  men  are  anxious  to 
get  rid  of  their  wives?"  and  Wells,  in  his  work  on  "Wedlock"  an- 
swers: "Because  so  few  women  exert  themselves  after  marriage 
to  make  their  presence  indispensable  to  their  husbands — this  is 
the  true  reason.  The  woman  who  charmed  before  marriage  can 
charm  afterwards,  if  she  will,  though  not  of  course  in  the  same 
way.  There  are  a  thousand  ways  in  which  she  can  make  herself 
the  particular  deity  of  the  domestic  paradise."  When  a  man  mar- 
ries a  woman,  he  looks  forward  to  a  companionship  of  bodies,  as 
well  as  to  an  affinity  of  souls.  I  have  already  referred  to  the  nar- 
row prejudices  of  the  early  church-fathers  who  taught  that  sexual 
passion  is  an  inspiration  from  the  devil.  Celibacy  and  continence 


Fig.  130. — "The  Arena,"  from  painting  by  Labaudere. 

were  exaggerated  into  cardinal  virtues,  and  the  most  unhappy 
misuse  was  made  of  this  idea.  So  pronounced  was  this  unhappy 
tendency  in  the  early  Christian  church  that  St.  Paul  was  led  to 
protest  in  very  plain  words  in  his  First  Letter  to  the  Corinthians, 
vii,  4,  5:  "Tlie  wife  hath  not  power  of  her  own  body,  but  the  hus- 
band; and  likewise  also,  the  husband  hath  not  poiuer  of  his  own 
body,  but  the  ivife.  Defraud  ye  not  one  another  *  *!" 

Leckey,  in  his  History  of  European  Morals  says  that  "when- 
ever any  strong  religious  fervor  fell  upon  a  husband  or  wife,  its 
first  effect  was  to  make  a  happy  union  impossible;  the  more  re- 
ligious partner  desired  to  live  an  unnatural  separation  in  mar- 
riage." There  is  many  a  man  who  is  daily  oppressed  by  the  su- 


284 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


perior  and  intimidating  goodness  of  his  wife.  He  realizes  that 
his  household  is  presided  over  by  a  priestess  of  moral  propriety, 
but  she  does  not  gladden  his  heart.  She  keeps  all  the  command- 
ments with  austere  fidelity  but  he  vainly  strives  to  make  a  com- 
panion of  her  in  the  practical  and  delightful  sense  of  the  word. 
When  the  wife  does  not  gratify  her  husband's  reasonable 
craving  to  see  and  enjoy  feminine  beauty,  which  is  inborn  in  the 
breast  of  every  manly  man,  she  ought  not  to  feel  surprised  when 
she  discovers  some  day  that  he  seeks  consolation, — not  by  visiting 


Fig.   131.— "  Will-o '-the-Wisp, "    from 
painting  by  Lersch. 


Fig.  132. — "The   Devil,"   from   painting 
by  Koppay. 


an  ideal  bronze  or  marble  Diana  in  an  art  gallery,  but  by  visiting 
a  living,  breathing,  palpitating,  passionate  Lais  or  Aspasia. 

The  wife  who  knows  how  to  combine  the  chastity  of  a  Juno 
with  the  loving  yielding  of  a  Venus,  need  not  fear  that  her  hus- 
band will  tire  of  her,  or  seek  pleasure  elsewhere. 

Austerely  chaste  wives  usually  have  profligate  husbands. 
Men  are  actively  sexual,  and  the  wife  should  not  repel  her  hus- 
band through  false  modesty;  she  should  be  glad  that  her  beauty 
can  attract  him  and  hold  him  to  home,  family,  and  morality.  "  Af- 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  285 

finities"  are  the  products  of  wifely  frigidity,  and  may  become  the 
will-o'-the-wisps  that  lure  to  ruin  (Fig.  131). 

Dean  Swift  said  quaintly : '  *  The  reason  why  so  few  marriages 
are  happy  is  because  young  women  spend  their  time  in  making 
nets — not  in  making  cages."  All  writers  on  the  subject  agree 
that  frigidly  chaste  wives  are  the  main  cause  of  the  prostitution 
that  is  inseparable  from  a  monogamic  life  and  civilization,  and 
civilized  clothing. 

"The  prostitute  (Fig.  132)  is  to  be  pitied,  not  to  be  blamed; 
she  is  the  necessary  product  and  victim  of  civilization.  Herself 
the  supreme  type  of  vice,  she  is  ultimately  the  most  efficient 
guardian  of  virtue.  On  that  one  degraded  head  are  concentrated 


Fig.  133. — "Innocence,"  from  painting  by  Benner. 

the  passions  and  desires  that  might  have  filled  the  world  with 
shame.  She  remains,  while  civilizations  and  creeds  rise  and  fall, 
the  Eternal  Priestess  of  Humanity,  blasted  for  the  sins  of  the 
people." 

"The  most  beautiful  object  in  the  world,  it  will  be  allowed,  is 
a  beautiful  woman, ' '  said  Macaulay,  and  the  Bible  teaches  us  how 
to  appreciate  this  Beauty  (Fig.  133).  Solomon  was  a  wise  man, 
and  a  man  of  much  experience,  for  he  had  700  wives  and  300  con- 
cubines ;  and  he  wrote : 

"Behold,  thou  art  fair,  my  beloved,  yea,  pleasant.  Thy  hair 
is  as  a  flock  of  goats  that  appear  from  Mount  Gilead.  Thou  hast 
dove's  eyes;  thine  eyes  are  like  the  fish-pools  of  Heshbon;  thy 


286 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


lips  are  like  threads  of  scarlet ;  thy  teeth  are  like  a  flock  of  sheep 
that  are  even  shorn !  Thy  neck  is  as  a  tower  of  ivory !  Thy  navel 
is  like  a  round  goblet  that  wanteth  not  liquor!  Thy  belly  is  like 
a  heap  of  wheat  set  about  with  lilies !  The  joints  of  thy  thighs  are 
like  jewels!  How  fair  and  how  beautiful  are  thy  feet,  0,  Prince's 
daughter!  How  fair  and  how  pleasant  art  thou,  0,  Love,  for 
delights!" 

To  nearly  every  man  comes  a  time  when  he  falls  under  the 
influence  of  some  woman  who  dominates  his  mind  and  his  whole 
life;  they  two  may  become  married  and  then,  if  she  is  a  good 


Fig.  134. — Una  and  the  Lion. 

woman,  she  will  be  the  inspiration  of  his  whole  being.     She  is 
Una,  tlie  One  (from  the  Latin  adjective  unus,  a,  um,  one). 

One  day  a  powerful  man,  a  giant  almost,  weighing  perhaps 
250  to  300  pounds,  who  worked  in  an  iron  works  in  St.  Louis,  was 
overcome  by  the  heat  of  a  summer's  day,  the  heat  of  a  puddling 
furnace  and  overindulgence  in  liquor,  and  he  ran  amuck.  He  took 
his  revolver,  and  went  out  in  the  street,  naked  to  his  waist  as 
were  the  others  about  the  furnaces,  and  he  threatened  to  kill  any- 
one he  might  see.  The  police  stopped  the  cars  from  running  and 


SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP  287 

warned  people  off  the  street,  and  they  themselves  staid  around 
the  corners.  Meanwhile  someone  had  gone  to  his  house  and  told 
his  wife;  she  came,  a  slight  woman  of  perhaps  125  pounds.  She 
went  out  in  the  street  and  called  to  him,  "Here,  John,  give  me 
that  gun!"  He  did  so  and  she  took  him  by  the  arm  and  led  him 
home  and  the  danger  was  over.  She  was  "Una,"  the  only  One 
that  dared  to  go  to  him  and  disarm  him.  This  is  allegorically 
represented  in  Figure  134. 

"To  make  the  cunning  artless,  tame  the  rude, 
Subdue  the  haughty,  shake  the  undaunted  soul 
Yea,  put  a  bridle  in  the  lion's  mouth 
And  lead  him  forth  as  a  domestic  cur, 
These  are  the  triumphs  of  all-powerful  Beauty." 

Idealization  and  Vulgarity  in  Art 

Kuskin  said  that  "there  are  three  classes  of  artists.  The  first 
class  take  the  good  and  leave  the  evil.  Out  of  whatever  is  pre- 
sented to  them  they  gather  what  it  has  of  grace,  and  life,  and 
light  and  loveliness,  and  leave  as  much  of  the  rest  unknown  and 
undrawn  (see  Fig.  330). 

"The  second,  or  greater  class,  render  all  that  they  see  in  na- 
ture unhesitatingly,  sympathizing  with  all  the  good,  and  bringing 
good  out  of  evil  also.  These  may  be  termed  naturalists.  They 
realize  that  sensual  pleasure  in  humankind  is  not  only  a  fact,  but 
a  Divine  fact ;  the  human  creature,  though  the  highest  of  animals, 
is  nevertheless  a  perfect  animal,  and  human  happiness,  health  and 
nobleness  depend  on  the  cultivation  of  every  animal  passion  as 
well  as  on  the  cultivation  of  every  spiritual  tendency." 

The  illustration  (Fig.  135)  shows  three  Bacchantes,  slightly 
intoxicated  as  becomes  the  priestesses  of  Bacchus,  the  god  of  wine ; 
the  two  outer  ones  are  trying  to  throw  the  one  in  the  center  into 
the  water;  the  group  was  designed  for  an  ornamental  fountain. 
As  a  representation  of  the  exuberant  joy  of  physical  life,  it  would 
be  difficult  to  find  a  better  example. 

"The  third  class  perceive  and  imitate  evil  only.  Their  art  is 
in  nowise  a  Divine  institution.  It  is  entirely  human,  and  these 
artists  are  either  useless  or  harmful  men.  These  men  are  sensual- 
ists, understand,  not  men  who  delight  in  evil;  but  men  who  fail 
to  see  or  represent  the  best  and  purest  there  is  in  nature." 


288 


SEX    AND   SEX    WORSHIP 


The  tendency  to  pander  to  sensuality  is  the  "modern  deca- 
dence of  art."  "While  the  greatest  artists  of  all  times  have  been 
naturalists,  the  world  is  full  of  vulgar  naturalists,  sensualists, 
who  bring  discredit  on  all  painting  of  nature."  Notice,  for  in- 


Fig.  135. — "Wrestling  Bacchantes,"  by  Petrilli.    Louisiana  Purchase  Exposition,  1904. 


Fig.  136. — ' '  The  Women  are  Dear, ' '  from  painting  by  E.  de  Beaumont. 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP 


289 


stance,  in  De  Beaumont's  picture:  Les  Femmes  Sont  Cheres  (Fig. 
136),  which  was  exhibited  in  the  French  Salon  of  1870,  a  negro 
ravishing  one  of  the  girl  slaves  in  the  standing  position. 

"Such  paintings  violate  every  instinct  of  decency  and  law 
of  virtue  or  life  written  on  the  human  soul." 

The  depths  to  which  artists  of  this  class  have  descended,  I 
can  not  show,  but  the  most  outrageous  examples  are  such  paint- 
ings as  Belsliazzar's  Feast,  or  the  illustrations  of  the  de  luxe  edi- 
tions of  Balzac's  Conies  Dr cliques,  or  the  Life  of  Casanova. 


Fig.    137.— "Leda    and    the   Swan," 
from  painting  by  Saintin. 


Fig.     138.— "Leda    and    the     Swan," 
from   painting  by  Lejeune. 


Idealization  and  Realism 

When  an  artist  uses  a  model  he  may  paint  her  just  as  she  is, 
as  did  the  medieval  Dutch  painters,  when  it  is  called  "realism." 
Occasionally,  of  course,  a  model  may  be  so  beautiful  or  perfect, 
that  there  is  nothing  to  suggest  coarse  fleshiness  merely. 

This  difference  may  be  appreciated  by  comparing  the  Leda 
by  Saintin  (Fig.  137)  with  the  Leda  by  Lejeune  (Fig.  138);  the 
latter  seems  improper  because  she  either  should  be  altogether 
clothed  or  altogether  naked,  for  being  partially  clothed  in  modern 
clothing  is  too  anachronistic  for  the  subject  of  the  painting. 


Compare  with  the  two  illustrations  of  Leda  and  the  Swan  also 
this  statue  by  Michelangelo,  the  Swan  (Jupiter)  having  sexual 
connection  with  Leda  (Fig.  139) ;  this  is  "realism." 

Compare  with  these  pictures  the  one  of  a  girl  bathing  in  a 
hidden  nook,  but  frightened  by  the  rustle  of  a  flying  bird  (page 


Fig.  139. — "Leda  and  the  Swan,"  by  Michelangelo. 


Fig.  140. — "Leda  and  the  Swan,"  from  painting  by  Corregio. 

246).    She  is  all  alone  and  as  innocent  and  pure  as  an  artist  can 
paint  a  naked  girl. 

This  leads  to  the  consideration  of  another  feature  of  works 
of  art — vulgarity. 


SEX    AND   SEX    WORSHIP 


291 


The  word  is  from  the  Latin  adjective  vulgaris,  e,  and  means 
common,  not  refined,  in  bad  taste.  Many  people  think  that  vulgar 
and  obscene  mean  the  same  thing.  Even  a  representation  of  coi- 
tion is  not  obscene,  in  a  proper  sense,  because  it  is  a  perfectly 
proper  and  moral  act,  but  it  is  generally  agreed  that  it  is  in  bad 
taste  to  represent  it  in  art;  a  picture  representing  it  would  be 
vulgar,  but  not  obscene. 

Vulgar  pictures  are  not  necessarily  evil,  but  they  are  more 
or  less  apt  to  be  so,  and  are  frequently  described  as  "suggestive ;" 
i.  e.,  they  are  often  erotically  excitant. 


Fig.  141. — "  Paul  and  Virginia. : 


Fig.  142. — "Daphnis     and     Chloe,''     by 
Courtot. 


Obscenity,  on  the  other  hand,  represents  the  vices ;  it  suggests 
and  teaches  practices  that  are  not  normal  or  proper  and  that  have 
been  decreed  by  the  consensus  of  opinion  of  decent  people  to  be 
vicious  and  immoral,  and  obscenity  is  therefore  harmful. 

Idealization  is  somewhat  difficult  when  man  and  woman  are 
represented  together  and  both  are  naked,  but  it  is  often  done,  mod- 
estly and  properly,  as  in  Cupid  and  Psyche  (page  151),  antique, 
and  Love  (page  275),  by  Evelyn  B.  Longman,  modern. 

More  frequently,  however,  one  or  both  figures  are  partially 
draped,  as  in  this  lovely  statue  of  Daphnis  and  Chloe  (Fig.  142), 
by  Courtot. 


292 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


Or  the  passionate  nature  of  the  man,  the  animal  instincts  of 
sex  in  man,  are  allegorized  as  a  wild  animal,  as  in  Diana  and  the 
LiorcbyElwell  (Fig.  143). 

Sculpture 

Sculpture  is  the  highest,  the  supreme  form  of  art;  the  best 
achievement  of  human  skill.  For  while  in  a  painting  we  see  an 
object  from  one  viewpoint  only,  in  statuary  we  may  have  as  many 
different  representations  as  there  are  different  angles,  and  as  the 


Fig.  143. — "Diana  and  the  Lion,"  by 
Elwell.     Chicago  World's  Fair,  1893. 


Fig.  144. — "Venus  de  Medici."  An- 
tique statue,  now  in  Eome. 


statue  must  look  perfect  from  every  angle,  it  demands  the  highest 
skill  to  make  a  statue. 

And  as  the  beauty  of  the  naked  woman  is  the  highest  type  of 
beauty,  the  representation  of  this  beauty  in  sculpture  is  neces- 
sarily the  highest  and  purest  of  all  the  arts. 

Figure  144  is  a  picture  of  the  most  celebrated  work  of  art  in 
the  world,  ancient  or  modern.  Aphrodite,  or  Venus,  being  the  God- 
dess of  Universal  Love,  is  naked;  and  her  posture  shows  her  as 
glorying  in  the  eternally  and  universally  entrancing  features  of 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  293 

the  broasts  and  pubes  as  the  symbols  of  womanhood.     Someone 
said  of  this  statue: 

"  There  was  a  sculptor  named  Phidias 
Whose  statues  were  perfectly  hideous; 
He  made  Aphrodite 
Without  any  nightie 
And  so  shocked  the  ultra-fastidious." 

Fanatics  teach  that  all  the  God-given  beauty  of  the  human 
body  is  corrupt ;  that  the  naked  human  body  is  always  evil. 

Some  people  can  not  see  the  purest  and  holiest  things  with- 
out interpreting  them  into  vice,  and  the  naked  glory  of  a  statue 
of  a  goddess  or  painting  of  a  naked  madonna  or  a  saint,  that  in 
the  pure-minded  evokes  nothing  but  emotions  of  thankfulness  to 
the  Creator  for  the  blessings  of  loveliness  and  goodness  with 
which  He  has  enriched  our  lives,  calls  forth  in  their  minds  las- 
civious thoughts  and  erotic  feelings  and  desires. 

"Their  minds  refuse  to  enter  the  ideal  world  to  which  these 
works  of  art  point,  but  stop  with  the  symbols  and  inflame  them- 
selves with  the  emotions  which  the  model 's  anachronistic  freedom, 
coupled  with  its  pulsating  vitality,  arouses  in  them. 

"Just  in  proportion  as  these  likenesses  are  pleasing  with 
ruddy  warmth  in  themselves,  they  remain  flesh  and  blood  to  such 
men  as  these" — and  judging  others  by  their  own  concupiscent 
natures,  they  imagine  all  others  to  be  tainted  with  the  same  moral 
perversity,  and  in  their  "immodest  modesty"  they  would  annihi- 
late whatever  makes  life  beautiful  and  good  and  pure,  and  would 
shroud  all  nature  in  sack-cloth  and  ashes;  they  would  blot  out 
sunshine  and  beauty  and  substitute  gloom  and  ugliness;  they 
would  close  our  art  galleries  and  would  deprive  mankind  of  the 
pure  pleasures  of  the  highest  forms  of  art. 

Such  men  are  of  that  type  of  ascetics  so  well  described  by 
Prescott:  "The  Aztec  priests  were  frequent  in  their  ablutions  and 
vigils,  and  mortified  the  flesh  in  fasting  and  by  cruel  penances- 
drawing  blood  from  their  bodies  by  all  those  austerities  to  which 
fanaticism  has  resorted  in  every  age  of  the  world,  in  hopes  to 
merit  heaven  by  making  earth  a  hell." 

They  are  survivals  of  that  perverted  type  of  virtue  which 
finds  its  extreme  illustration  in  those  fanatics  who  believed  with 
St.  Hieronymus  that  "Woman  is  the  door  for  the  devil,  a  way  to 


294  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

evil,  the  sting  of  the  scorpion,"  and  who  crossed  themselves  and 
repeated  the  litany  for  exorcising  the  devil  when  they  saw  a 
woman;  or  who  castrated  themselves  and  lived  as  hermits  like 
Origen,  to  escape  from  their  supersensitive  concupiscence. 

The  fanatical  pilgrims  who  drink  from  the  sacred,  but  pol- 
luted, wells  of  Mecca  and  then  start  the  scourge  of  cholera  around 
the  world,  think  they  serve  God,  and  are  as  well-meaning  as  men 
and  women  of  this  kind  whose  teachings  prepare  the  mental  soil 
for  the  development  of  that  epidemic  of  vice,  the  contagion  of 
which  is  poured  out  over  the  intellectual  world  by  such  men  as 
Casanova,  Zola,  and  the  many  apostles  of  filth  who  wallow  in 
moral  mire  like  swine  in  a  morass. 

The  vast  deluge  of  indecent,  obscene  and  erotic  literature  and 
art  which  floods  the  civilized  world  is  but  the  harvest  of  weeds 
that  sprout  and  thrive  on  the  soil  so  well  prepared  for  their 
reception. 

The  two  tendencies  of  thought,  the  puritanical  which  de- 
nounces all  nude  in  art,  and  the  erotic  which  prefers  impure  art, 
are  responsible  for  most  of  the  vices  in  civilization ;  ethically  these 
trends  of  thought  are  as  far  as  heaven  and  hell  apart,  but  prac- 
tically they  are  co-workers  and  boon-companions,  cause  and  effect, 
in  the  work  of  breeding  moral  pestilence.  The  puritanical  views 
teach  the  mind  to  see  evil  in  things  that  are  in  themselves  inno- 
cent and  harmless,  and  the  other  view  furnishes  the  evil  in  art 
which  those  who  have  been  educated  to  look  for  evil,  can  find  when 
they  look  for  it. 

Unfortunately  Max  Nordau  was  right  when  he  said:  "We 
cling  like  cowards  to  certain  conventionalities  whose  utter  incon- 
gruity we  feel  with  every  fibre  of  our  being,"  else  we  would  not 
allow  the  opinions  of  millions  of  pure-minded  and  educated  people 
to  be  misrepresented  by  a  few  fanatics  to  whose  perverted  vision 
purity  is  distorted  into  impurity  and  who  consider  beauty  of  body 
the  greatest  crime,  and  the  admiration  of  that  beauty  the  greatest 
vice. 

The  Nude  is  inherently  neither  decent  nor  indecent.  Decency 
is  a  conforming  to  usage,  and  what  is  decent  at  one  time  and  place 
is  indecent  at  another  time  and  place.  Thus,  when  Kawlinson 
said  of  Nefert-Ari-Ahmes  ("the  beautiful  consort  of  Ahmes") 
that  "she  went  in  an  indecently  transparent  garment,"  he  uses 
an  inappropriate  expression,  as  lie  judges  her  by  the  standards 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  295 

of  decency  in  his  time,  instead  of  by  those  of  her  own  time  by 
which  alone  she  should  be  judged  and  according  to  which  she  was 
attired  perfectly  decently  (see  page  240). 

Nudity  was  considered  to  be  perfectly  proper,  and  evidently 
the  thin  fabrics  with  which  rich  Egyptian  ladies  enveloped  them- 
selves were  not  worn  from  a  desire  to  hide  their  bodies  from  sight 
but  rather  as  veils  to  protect  them  from  annoyance  by  gnats  and 
flies.  Juvenal  speaks  of  women  of  his  day,  who  were  so  delicate 
that  they  became  overheated  by  wearing  a  silken  veil,  and  who 
therefore  had  to  go  about  naked. 

In  an  abstract  sense  the  naked  body  is  more  chaste  than  the 
clothed.  We  read  in  the  Bible :  "  So  God  created  man  in  his  own 
image — and  God  saw  everything  he  had  made  and  behold  it  was 
very  good ; — and  they  were  both  naked,  the  man  and  his  wife,  and 
were  not  ashamed." 

That  nudity  is  not  incompatible  with  modesty  is  seen  in  many 
of  the  lower  nations ;  the  Botocudos,  for  instance,  live  in  absolute 
nudity  yet  their  language  has  a  word  for  "blushing."  It  is  be- 
cause of  its  suggestion  of  an  ideal,  unearthly  world  that  the  em- 
ployment of  the  Nude  in  Art  has  its  justification  and  its  necessity. 
The  Nude,  when  elevated  by  idealization,  presents  pure  being  or 
action  without  the  hindering  accidents  of  earthly  reality ;  it  trans- 
ports the  mind  of  the  observer  back  to  some  golden  age,  or  for- 
ward to  some  heavenly  world  where  personality  is  unembar- 
rassed by  convention,  where  character  and  intention  stand  out 
clear  and  undisguised. 

"In  an  age  of  commonplace  realism  like  the  present,  it  is 
well  for  the  public  mind  that  it  should  be  occasionally  invited  to 
enter  an  ideal  world  where  human  life  and  human  labor  are  pre- 
sented in  abstract  form." 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  it  is  "instinctive  modesty"  which 
causes  a  girl  to  shrink  from  being  seen  naked,  but  this  is  not  really 
so.  Children  are  not  ashamed  of  being  seen  naked,  and  it  is  only 
by  the  most  persistent  admonition  from  their  mothers  that  they 
can  be  finally  made  to  understand  that  they  should  be  ashamed 
of  their  own  bodies ;  incidently  this  proves  that  acquired  ideas  or 
mental  traits  are  not  transmissible  by  inheritance,  even  after 
many  centuries  of  persistence. 

The  story  is  told  of  a  little  girl  who  came  running  out  of  her 
room  dressed  only  in  her  nightie,  to  greet  a  little  boy  visitor  whose 


296  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

voice  she  heard.  Her  mother  was  shocked  and  sent  her  back  to 
her  room  saying,  "little  girls  must  not  allow  themselves  to  be 
seen  in  their  nighties."  In  a  few  moments  the  little  girl  came 
out  again,  saying,  "I'm  all  right  now;  I  took  off  my  nightie!" 
The  story  sounds  true.  Even  if  it  is  not  true,  it  illustrates  so  well 
a  child's  attitude  toward  nudity. 

Nor  is  it  instinctive  that  girls  become  more  sensitive  in  this 
regard  than  boys ;  there  are  nations  in  which  the  women  go  naked 
while  the  men  are  clothed,  which,  after  all,  is  but  rational  since 
in  a  naked  man  the  genital  organs  can  be  seen  while  they  can  not 
be  seen  in  a  naked  woman.  Nor  is  it  instinctive  modesty  which 
determines  which  part  of  the  body  must  be  kept  hidden,  for  dif- 
ferent parts  must  be  covered  in  different  nations.  Among  our- 
selves, perhaps  the  first  effort  of  a  girl  surprised  naked  would  be 
to  hide  the  sexual  parts,  but  among  the  Malays  a  girl  or  woman 
would  under  similar  circumstances  cover  her  navel  with  her 
hands ;  and  the  women  of  some  African  tribes  wear  an  apron  be- 
hind, and  if  they  lose  this  apron  they  sit  down  until  another  is 
handed  to  them  because  it  would  be  very  indecent  to  expose  their 
posteriors  to  sight,  while  a  bare  front  is  perfectly  chaste  and 
proper. 

Among  Turks,  Egyptians  and  Mohammedans  generally  the 
faces  of  the  women  must  be  kept  hidden,  and  a  Turkish  woman 
surprised  by  a  man  with  her  face  uncovered  will,  if  no  other  cov- 
ering is  at  hand,  raise  her  garments  and  throw  them  over  her 
head  even  if  by  so  doing  she  exposes  her  naked  body  from  the 
bosom  down,  rather  than  that  her  naked  face  should  be  seen.  The 
gesture  of  covering  the  face  when  surprised  partly  or  wholly  un- 
dressed is  not  uncommon  among  our  own  women,  and  it  really 
implies  greater  embarrassment  and  agitation  than  the  hiding  of 
the  genitals,  because  it  is  intended  to  hide  the  blushes  and  per- 
haps tears  which  are  the  result  of  intense  self-consciousness  of 
shame  and  mortification. 

In  some  Arabian  tribes  modesty  requires  that  the  back  of  the 
head  and  hair  be  kept  covered,  while  in  China  the  foot  and  leg  of 
a  woman  must  not  be  exposed  to  view,  and  may  not  even  be  men- 
tioned in  polite  society.  Habit  and  custom,  therefore,  alone  de- 
cide what  is  proper  or  improper  in  these  regards,  and  education 
and  not  instinct  makes  us  ashamed  of  nakedness.  Nor  is  the 
wearing  of  clothes  a  result  of  being  ashamed  of  our  nakedness, 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


297 


but  the  wearing  of  clothing  has  produced  this  sense  of  shame. 

Fair-skinned  nations  feel  the  need  of  a  covering  for  their 
bodies  more  than  dark-skinned  nations,  but  it  does  not  always 
lead  to  the  wearing  of  clothes,  for  painting  the  body,  or  tattooing 
it,  often  are  used  instead.  In  Japan  clothing  is  not  worn  from 
any  sense  of  shame,  for  in  the  rural  districts  the  inhabitants  go 
clothed  in  winter  and  naked  in  summer,  the  clothing  being  simply 
a  protection  against  the  weather. 

Our  grown  folks  find  nothing  objectionable  in  seeing  a  baby 
naked  and  our  little  ones  are  often  photographed  thus.  It  would 


Fig.  145. — "The    Sistine    Madonna,"    in       Fig.  146. — Portrait  statue   of  Marie  An- 
the  Sistine  Chapel,  Vatican,  Rome.  toinette  and  Dauphin  Prince. 

be  a  very  nice  distinction  to  say  just  when  this  nakedness  becomes 
improper ;  the  suggestion  that  it  becomes  immodest  as  soon  as  the 
child  becomes  self-conscious  of  the  impropriety  will  not  answer, 
for  it  does  not  become  thus  conscious  except  from  the  teaching  of 
others. 

The  innocence  of  naked  childhood  is  also  attested  in  this,  that 
Madonnas  are  often  figured  with  the  Christ-Child  naked,  or  sur- 
rounded by  naked  cherubs  (Fig.  145). 

Swedenborg,  the  celebrated  theologian,  says,  in  commenting 


298  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

on  this  subject:  "The  angels  in  the  inmost  heaven  are  naked  be- 
cause they  are  innocent  and  innocence  corresponds  to  nakedness. 
To  the  innocent  and  the  chaste  nakedness  is  no  shame  because 
without  offence."  This  is  of  course  a  logical  conclusion  forced 
on  us  by  the  Bible,  for  since  clothing  was  the  result  of  our  first 
parents'  fall,  or  sin,  it  can  have  no  place  in  heaven  where  there 
is  no  sin. 

The  noble  ladies  in  the  times  of  Titian,  Canova,  and  even 
later,  of  Makart,  considered  it  an  honor  to  be  permitted  to  pose 
naked  for  these  great  masters.  Princess  Pauline  Bonaparte,  sis- 
ter of  the  great  Napoleon,  was  one  of  the  most  beautiful  women 
of  modern  times  and  she  had  a  portrait-statue  of  herself  made 
by  Canova,  which  is  now  known  as  the  "Borghese  Venus."  When 
the  work  was  first  exhibited  and  one  of  her  friends  exclaimed: 
"How  could  you  pose  like  that  for  Canova?"  she  showed  a  much 
more  chaste  conception  than  her  friend,  when  she  naively  replied : 
"The  studio  was  kept  very  comfortably  warm." 

Figure  146  shows  a  statue  of  Marie  Antoinette  and  her  son, 
the  Dauphin  Prince,  made  for  her  husband,  Louis  XVI,  of  France. 

A  St.  Louis  photographer  told  me  that  he  had  frequent  re- 
quests from  married  women  to  be  photographed  naked,  to  please 
their  husbands ;  this  same  photographer  told  me  that  he  had  made 
over  2000  photographs  of  naked  women,  arrangements  for  hav- 
ing them  made  having  been  attended  to  by  the  husbands,  who 
in  many  cases  accompanied  their  wives  to  his  studio;  and  in  an 
interview  a  New  York  photographer  was  quoted  as  saying  that 
he  had  made  about  3000  photographs  of  naked  women  in  one  and 
a  half  years,  and  very  few  of  these  were  immoral  women. 

We  were  told  on  the  authority  of  a  leading  photographic 
journal  that  it  is  the  custom  in  England  (this  was  before  the  war) 
among  young  ladies  among  the  best  families  to  have  themselves 
photographed  undraped,  in  "classic  poses"  (Fig.  147) ;  and  that 
every  young  lady  in  society  possesses  an  album  filled  with  such 
portraits  of  her  girl  friends.  The  practice  deserves  encourage- 
ment, rather  than  censure,  for  it  cultivates  a  healthier  and  more 
moral  appreciation  of  the  beauty  and  essential  purity  of  the  hu- 
man body  than  has  heretofore  prevailed,  and  must  lead  to  happier 
marriages  and  purer  lives. 

Sarony  gave  much  attention  to  photographing  from  the  nude, 
and  many  of  his  published  pictures  are  very  beautiful.  In  recent 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


299 


times  various  photographic  journals  contained  articles  asking  pho- 
tographers to  pay  more  attention  to  this  branch  of  their  art ;  urg- 
ing competitive  exhibition  of  such  work  at  the  photographers' 
conventions,  and  claiming  that  such  portrayal  of  nude  figures  is 
the  highest  form  of  photographic  art,  as  it  is  the  highest  art  to 
represent  the  nude  body  in  paintings  and  statuary. 

"Purity  does  not  consist  in  seeing  nastiness  in  everything," 
and  when  a  beautiful  bride,  a  society  belle  in  a  Missouri  town, 
startled  her  friends  some  years  ago  by  having  herself  photo- 
graphed naked  to  please  her  husband,  she  did  a  perfectly  chaste 
and  proper  thing  by  perpetuating  the  enjoyment  of  her  youthful 
beauty  to  be  a  delight  to  her  husband  when  the  inexorable  ravages 


Fig.  147.  —  Modern 
classic  pose,  popular  pres- 
ent-day photography. 


Fig.  148.— "Bath  of  Court  Ladies;  XVIII  Century. ; 
From    a   painting. 


of  time  and  maternity  would  otherwise  have  made  it  but  a  sweet 
sad  memory.  When  a  husband  wishes  to  have  such  a  picture  and 
the  wife  is  willing  to  please  him,  there  can  be  no  legitimate  reason 
for  objecting,  any  more  than  there  is  to  photographing  our  chil- 
dren naked ;  such  pictures  are  perfectly  chaste  and  not  to  be  men- 
tioned in  the  same  breath  with  vulgar  or  obscene  pictures. 

It  is  generally  stated  that  the  Japanese  are  sexually  an  ex- 
ceptionally pure  people,  yet  in  Yeddo  there  is  a  large  public  bath- 
house where  men  and  women  swim  and  bathe  in  the  same  pool 


300  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

perfectly  naked,  the  two  sexes  being  kept  apart  by  a  bamboo  pole 
laid  across  to  divide  the  pool  into  two  compartments;  yet  there 
is  no  immorality  in  consequence.  A  well-known  lady  lecturer  on 
Japan  told  me  that  on  one  occasion  she  was  invited  for  a  week- 
end party  in  the  country  by  a  prominent  Japanese  official  in 
Tokyo.  When  she  got  to  the  country-home  she  was  introduced  to 
the  whole  family,  one  member,  a  grown  son,  being  in  a  state  of 
perfect  nudity.  Also,  in  her  city  home,  she  could  see  her  neighbor 
sitting  in  his  garden  naked,  every  warm  evening. 

Turkish  ladies  make  up  parties  to  take  their  baths  together 
where  they  lounge  and  gossip,  drink  coffee  or  sherbet,  eat  confec- 
tions and  smoke  narghiles,  and  mothers  have  opportunities  to 
see  the  physical  charms  of  the  eligible  girls  in  their  acquaintance- 
ship and  report  to  their  sons,  to  guide  the  latter  in  choosing  wives. 

There  is  no  reason  other  than  absurd  prudery  why  our  ladies 
should  not  take  their  baths  together  as  was  the  custom  among  the 
court-ladies  in  the  eighteenth  century  (Fig.  148).  The  parties  of 
ladies  in  our  natatoriums  or  in  our  public  bathing  pools  are  a 
movement  in  the  direction  of  rational  and  healthful  enjoyment; 
still  more  so,  the  bathing  beaches  in  various  parts  of  the  world. 

Every  human  being  should  expose  the  entire  surface  of  the 
body  to  the  air  and  sunshine  for  an  hour  or  two  a  day,  if  possible, 
and  it  would  do  away  with  a  vast  amount  of  sickness  and  depres- 
sion of  spirits. 

The  bacilli  of  disease  thrive  in  darkness,  and  more  light  means 
more  health,  better  morals,  and  longer  and  happier  lives.  Now 
only  our  faces  and  hands  receive  the  benefit  of  sunlight,  for  the 
rest  of  our  bodies  is  in  continual  darkness  under  our  opaque 
clothing,  or  at  best,  in  perpetual  twilight  in  the  lighter  wearing 
apparel  of  our  women.  If  to  a  sunbath  wrere  added  the  cheering 
influence  of  good  company,  the  human  body  and  mind  would  both 
be  invigorated  and  cleansed,  and  it  would  harm  none  and  be  pro- 
motive  of  better  morals  and  more  joyous  home-life  if  the  men  of 
the  family  were  permitted  to  look  in  on  such  family  recreations, 
as  they  could  do  in  ancient  Greece  and  Rome,  for  they  would  not 
then  be  tempted  to  go  to  houses  of  prostitution,  or  to  keep  mis- 
tresses to  see  what  should  be  a  daily  delight  in  their  own  homes. 
Our  clothing  is  to  a  great  extent  the  cause  of  our  immoralities, 
and  it  is  the  testimony  of  disinterested  observers,  that,  when  civ- 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  301 

ilized  clothing  is  introduced  into  previously  innocent  heathen 
communities,  our  vices  and  licentiousness  go  with  it. 

Because  we  see  the  nude  so  seldom  an  unexpected  sight  or 
suggestion  of  it  gives  pleasurable  feelings,  or  even  in  some  who 
have  been  improperly  educated  in  regard  to  it,  excites  erotically. 
Men  are  fond  of  sexual  things;  this  explains  their  fondness  for 
pictures  or  statues  of  the  nude,  for  erotic  stories,  for  "stag  par- 
ties," and  for  the  innumerable  suggestive  pictures  that  are  extant. 

Men  are  fond  of  seeing  representations  of  the  sexual  act.  Fig. 
149  is  a  photograph  of  a  pipe,  found  in  a  mound  in  Indiana. 
It  shows  that  the  earliest  inhabitants  of  America  had  some  of  the 


Fig.  149. — A  pipe  found  in  a  mound  in  the  United   States,  in  the  State  of  Indiana, 
below ;   a  modern  Meerschaum  pipe,  above. 

mental  traits  of  the  present  inhabitants.  In  Mexico  statuettes  of 
couples  engaged  in  coition  are  openly  sold,  as  part  of  the  instruc- 
tion to  the  young  folks  and  as  a  pleasant  excitement  for  the  older 
folks.  Even  these  figures  are  not  in  themselves  indecent ;  there 
are  Polynesian  tribes  in  which  the  newly  married  couple  per- 
form this  consummation  of  the  marriage  before  the  assembled 
guests.  Speaking  of  such  representations,  Ruskin,  than  whom  a 
purer-minded  man  never  wrote  on  art,  said:  "In  this  breadth  and 
realism  the  painter  saw  that  sexual  passion  is  not  only  a  fact  but 
a  divine  fact ;  the  human  creature,  though  the  highest  of  animals, 
was  nevertheless  a  perfect  animal  and  his  happiness,  health  and 


302  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

nobleness  depended  upon  the  due  power  of  every  animal  passion 
as  well  as  on  the  cultivation  of  every  spiritual  tendency/' 

The  nude  is  not  always  or  necessarily  chaste;  it  may  be  sug- 
gestive of  evil,  of  course.  Nor  is  it  necessary  that  the  figure 
should  be  naked  to  express  an  evil  tendency ;  viciousness  may  be 
shown  in  entirely  covered  figures.  The  propriety  or  impropriety 
of  the  nude  is  therefore  not  conditioned  upon  the  mere  presence 
or  absence  of  clothing,  but  upon  the  motive  of  the  representation. 
Madonnas  have  been  painted  naked  and  chaste,  and  clothed  and 
unchaste. 

There  are,  or  rather  were  before  the  war,  establishments  in 
Europe  where  photographs  were  made  from  natural  poses,  to 
illustrate  every  possible  or  conceivable  posture  in  which  natural 
or  unnatural  sexual  gratification  may  be  obtained. 

The  collection  of  mural  paintings  from  the  bath  rooms  of 
Pompeii  and  Herculaneum,  now  in  the  Muse  Secret,  of  the  latter 
city,  are  a  collection  of  this  kind.  This  kind  of  art  possibly  came 
to  Rome  from  India  and  Egypt.  Collections  of  such  drawings 
were  known  as  the  Pictures  of  Elephantis  in  ancient  Greece  and 
Rome,  and  it  is  recorded  that  a  rich  Roman  matron,  Lalage,  pre- 
sented a  copy  of  this  work  to  the  temple  of  Priapus  with  the  prayer 
that  she  might  be  permitted  to  enjoy  the  passionate  pleasures  over 
which  this  god  presided  in  all  the  postures  depicted  in  that  cele- 
brated treatise. 

In  civilized  communities  the  man  who  marries  burdens  him- 
self with  obligations  towards  wife,  children  and  society  that  de- 
prive him  of  many  personal  comforts  that  he  might  have  enjoyed 
if  he  had  remained  single,  for  he  can  gratify  his  passions  much 
more  economically  by  occasional  visits  to  a  prostitute  than  by 
establishing  a  wife  in  a  household  of  his  own.  This  extra  burden, 
therefore,  is  assumed  for  the  sake  of  the  psychical  element  of  the 
love  he  feels  for  the  woman  he  makes  his  wife,  but  there  is  no 
doubt  that  sensual  passion  for  the  loved  one  is  an  important  or 
even  the  primary  incentive  that  impels  him  to  marriage. 

La  Roche-Faucauld  wrote:  "It  is  difficult  to  define  love;  in 
the  mind  it  is  nothing  but  a  latent  and  delicate  desire  to  possess 
the  loved  object."  If  it  were  not  for  this  passion  men  would  ar- 
gue, as  I  once  heard  it  expressed:  "What  is  the  use  of  keeping  a 
cow,  when  milk  can  be  bought  for  ten  cents  a  quart  f ' '  and  prosti- 
tutes would  soon  outnumber  wives.  It  is  therefore  necessary  in 


SEX   AXD    SEX    WORSHIP  303 

the  interests  of  our  race,  of  society  and  of  good  morals,  that  the 
passions  of  men  should  over-ride  cold  calculating  reason,  for  if 
the  sexual  passion  became  less  strong,  or  was  outweighed  by  mo- 
tives of  selfishness,  the  majority  of  marriages  would  not  occur. 

Passion  in  man  must  therefore  be  kept  alive  and  as  the  nat- 
ural stimulus  of  nudity  at  home  and  among  our  friends  is  want- 
ing, smutty  stories,  obscene  pictures,  erotic  literature  and  las- 
civious exhibitions  have  been  substituted.  The  Erotica  have  a 
legitimate  function  to  perform  and  can  not  be  suppressed  unless 
we  return  to  archaic  simplicity  of  costumes  and  methods  of  living. 

On  this  subject  Thomas  Case,  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy 
at  Oxford,  said :  ' '  Many  books  are  proper  for  men  which  are  im- 
proper for  women;  a  man  may  hear  and  read  things  which  a 
woman  should  not.  As  God  has  not  found  some  other  way  to  gen- 
erate mankind,  it  is  vital  that  a  woman  should  be  a  pure  vessel. 
On  this  point  it  would  be  immoral  to  -mince  matters.  A  wife  is 
much  more  the  mother  of  a  child,  both  before  and  after  its  birth, 
than  the  husband  is  the  father.  The  law7  of  divorce,  in  condemning 
her  more  easily,  is  only  following  the  inexorable  law  of  nature, 
which  absolutely  demands  her  purity." 

ART  ANATOMY 

A  thorough  knowledge  of  anatomy  is  not  necessary,  or  even 
desirable,  to  judge  or  to  execute  works  of  art ;  a  trained  accuracy 
of  observation  is  sufficient.  In  fact,  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
anatomy  is  incompatible  with  the  representation  and  apprecia- 
tion of  beauty,  in  the  highest  sense,  because  it  tempts  the  artist 
to  work  out  details  that  he  knows  exist,  but  that  he  can  not  see 
in  the  skin-covered  body. 

The  simplest  rule  of  proportions  is  the  modern  one,  of  eight 
head-lengths,  as  shown  in  Fig.  150.  Also,  the  body  is  just  as 
long  as  is  the  distance  from  tip  to  tip  of  the  fingers  when  the  arms 
are  outstretched. 

The  old  Greek  rule  is  illustrated  in  Fig.  151;  a  line  is  first 
drawn  across  from  one  shoulder  (acromion  process)  to  the  other; 
the  part  below  that  line  is  divided  into  three  equal  parts;  the 
part  above  is  %  as  long  as  one  of  these  parts,  of  which  the  head 
is  in  turn  %;  the  head  is  therefore  %  of  %i  of  the  total  length 


304 


SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


from  the  top  of  the  head  to  the  sole  of  the  foot ;  this  is  %3  or  very 
near  %  or  %%. 

Our  bodily  conformation  and  mental  disposition  resulted  from 
ages  of  inheritance  and  not  merely  from  the  two  individuals 
whom  we  call  parents ;  each  of  us  represents  the  average  features 
of  innumerable  ancestors  (Fig.  152).  Each  of  us  had  two  parents, 
four  grandparents,  eight  great-grandparents,  etc.,  doubling  for 
each  generation;  counting  at  the  rate  of  three  generations  to  the 
century  there  would  have  been  over  four  thousand  ancestors  in 


Fig.  150. — Proportions    of    human    body.     Modern  rule,  eight  head-lengths. 

the  year  1500,  about  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  America;  and  in 
the  fifty-seventh  generation  remote,  contemporaneous  with  the 
beginning  of  our  era,  about  one  hundred  forty-four  quadrillions. 
But  all  these  ancestors  added  together  would  give  each  one  of  us 
the  grand  total  of  over  two  hundred  eighty-eight  quadrillions  of 
ancestors  since  the  beginning  of  our  era;  and  man  probably  ex- 
isted more  than  a  quarter  of  a  million  years  previously,  not  count- 
ing the  myriads  of  generations  of  animal  ancestry  before  our 
first  primitive  human  forefathers  were  formed. 

These  numbers  are  of  course  vastly  in  excess  of  the  actual 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


305 


numbers,  since  they  do  not  take  into  account  intermarriages  of 
relatives.  Let  us  suppose  that  the  parents  were  cousins ;  that  the 
grandparents  were  also  cousins,  and  that  two  of  the  great-grand- 
parents were  children  of  the  same  parents  although  they  married 
into  unrelated  families,  and  four  generations  ago,  instead  of  six- 


]ff-L  r 

Jtit/UMa 

>  „/  y  4- 
3/7»  i 


7Kl  tuthlKlytt 

VV2/  -    4t-, 

3    'L^** 

KSUoUy   h>Jy  :, 

Ccmj/iU.ti<t  d  & 


Fig.  151. — Represents    the    proportions    as  ascertained   from  an   analysis  of  hun- 
dreds of  antique  statues. 


.  -    AD  1500.        ' 

1.097. 1 SZ.  -     AD.  1100 
I3f  ,117.71*.  -    AD    1000. 
#,398, Of6.5ll. IO¥.     AD.  500. 

iw,iif,i88,o7f,ass,m.-TiHc  or  CHRIST. 
268,230,37€,t51,  7H.742.  -  Toted  since  c7mst. 

Fig.  152. — This  diagram  shows  the  complexity  of  heredity. 

teen  ancestors  we  find  but  eight.  The  possibilities  of  inter- 
national intermingling  are  suggested  by  the  names  of  countries, 
but  possibilities  of  race  intermingling  are  intentionally  omitted. 
If  no  other  intermarriages  than  those  just  mentioned  had  occurred 


306 


SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 


previously  since  the  Christian  era  began,  yet  the  288  quadrillions 
of  ancestors  would  be  reduced  to  144  quadrillions.  If  we  make  a 
wildly  extravagant  allowance  and  say  that  our  figures  are  one- 
hundred-thousand-millions  times  too  large,  our  ancestry  would 
still  be  nearly  three  millions  of  different  individuals  since  the 
Christian  era  began ;  however  meaningless  such  figures  may  there- 


AUiTRIA 


SPAIN. 


ITALY.   ,- 


GERMANY 
RUSSIA. 


AMERICA. 

Fig.  153. — Heredity;   effect  of  intermarriage  between  cousins,  and  between  persons  of 

different  nations  indicated. 


BOAZw.tf.Ruf  ft. 
OBED. 
JESSE. 


SOLOMON. 
ROBOAM. 
ABIA. 

>v 

Fig.  154. — The  ancestry  as  well  as  the  posterity  of  one  man. 

fore  be  as  facts,  they  still  help  us  to  realize  the  complexity  of  the 
heredity  that  made  us  what  we  are,  bodily  and  mentally,  and  the 
infinitely  small  influence  any  one  of  these  ancestors  of  the  "long 
ago ' '  can  have  had  on  our  nature. 

We  read  in  the  first  chapter  of  St.  Matthew:  "Boaz  begat 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  307 

Obed,  of  Kuth;  Obed  begat  Jesse;  and  Jesse  begat  David,  the 
king;  and  David  the  king  begat  Solomon  of  her  that  had  been  the 
wife  of  Urias;  and  Solomon  begat  Roboam;  and  Roboam  begat 
Abia ; ' '  etc.  Let  us  assume  that  each  in  turn  begat  two  sons,  and 
we  have  the  lower  pyramid.  David's  blood  comes  to  each  one  in 
Abia's  generation  in  as  direct  a  line  as  to  himself.  It  has  been 
calculated  that  there  is  not  a  Caucasian  today  who  has  not  in  him 
traces  of  King  David's  blood,  and  this  calculation  does  not  even 
depend  upon  Solomon's  efforts  in  diffusing  the  strain  by  having 
700  wives  and  300  concubines;  nor  upon  the  further  statement 
that  " Solomon  loved  many  strange  women!" 

But  David  was  not  an  original  source  of  hereditary  influence ; 
each  individual  is  but  like  the  focus  of  the  rays  of  light  coming 
through  a  condensing  lens.  In  David  innumerable  lines  of  con- 
verging hereditary  influence  from  all  the  past  ages  became  vis- 
ible for  a  brief  lifetime,  and  then  radiated  again  in  innumerable 
lines  of  divergence  to  the  end  of  time;  King  David's  blood  is  but 
the  blood  of  Boaz  and  Ruth,  and  of  all  their  ancestors ;  it  blended 
with  the  blood  of  all  the  ancestors  of  Bath-Sheba,  the  wife  of 
Urias,  and  with  the  blood  of  all  his  other  wives,  and  through  all 
their  offspring  it  was  transmitted  to  every  Caucasian  now  living. 

And  just  as  David's  blood  courses  in  all  our  veins,  so  does  the 
blood  of  Phoenician  and  Persian  kings,  of  Greek  heroes  and  of 
Roman  emperors,  of  Gallic,  Teutonic,  Norse  and  Scandinavian 
chiefs,  who  transmitted  their  blood  in  greater  currents  than  other 
men,  for  many  women  captured  in  war  became  mothers  through 
them;  thus,  the  Roman  Emperor  Prokulus  said  in  a  letter  to  his 
friend  Metianus,  that  in  less  than  fourteen  days  he  had  impreg- 
nated one  hundred  virgins  captured  in  war. 

And  not  only  the  blood  of  kings  and  nobles,  but  the  blood  of 
slaves  as  well  courses  in  each  one's  veins,  for  the  " wives"  were 
often  the  pretty  daughters  of  the  slaves !  And  through  the  vicis- 
situdes of  war  and  rapine  and  plunder,  princesses  became  slaves 
and  the  mothers  of  slaves,  and  slaves  who  found  favor  in  the 
eyes  of  royal  masters  became  the  mothers  of  princes. 

Add  to  this  the  right  of  the  feudal  lords  to  use  their  female 
serfs;  "the  law  of  the  first  night"  which  gave  the  king  the  right 
of  first  cohabitation  with  a  bride,  and  the  right  to  delegate  the 
privilege  to  someone  else;  and  the  prevalence  of  clandestine  inter- 
course at  all  times,  and  among  all  classes,  and  we  have  influ- 


308 


SEX  AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


ences  which  produced  such  a  blending  of  hereditary  strains  as  to 
insure  the  average  similarity  of  physical  proportions  and  mental 
characteristics  for  the  entire  Caucasian  race. 

In  the  man  the  bones  are  larger,  the  muscles  more  prominent, 


Fig.  155. — Muscular  back  of  a  man. 


Fig.  156. — Smooth  back  of  a  woman.        Fig.  157. — Two  small  children,  compared. 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


309 


and  all  anatomical  detail  is  more  distinctly  shown  (Fig.  155) ;  this 
shows  the  muscular  back  of  a  man,  while  the  smoothness  of  a 
woman's  body  is  well  shown  in  Figure  156. 

Of  course,  this  refers  to  men  and  women  in  civilized  commu- 
nities; savage  women,  and  hard-laboring  civilized  women  fre- 
quently have  well-developed  muscles  and  approach  the  male  type 
in  appearance. 

In  childhood  there  is  no  difference  of  build  between  the  sexes ; 
in  the  new  born  child,  the  whole  body  is  four  and  one-half  head- 
lengths  in  size,  but  the  body  grows  more  rapidly  than  the  head  so 


Fig.  158. — Young  girl  about  ten  or  twelve 
years  old. 


Fig.  159.— "The    Young    Prisoner," 
by  Michelangelo. 


that  this  proportion  changes  until  the  body  has  attained  its  full 
growth.  This  indicates  the  essential  uniformity  of  build  in 
infancy  (Fig.  157). 

At  the  approach  of  maturity  both  sexes  assume  the  normal 
sex-characteristics,  but  up  to  the  age  of  about  ten  or  twelve 
there  is  not  yet  much  difference;  this  shows  a  young  girl  (Fig. 
158)  compared  with  the  figure  of  a  young  boy,  the  latter  shown 
from  a  statue  by  Michelangelo,  The  Young  Prisoner  (Fig.  159). 

At  the  age  of  puberty  (Fig.  160)  a  girl's  bosom  enlarges  and 


310 


SEX  AND    SEX   WORSHIP 


the  pubic  hair  appears — two  features  of  beauty  to  which  the 
prophet  Ezekiel  referred  when  he  compared  Jerusalem  to  a  young 
bride  (Ezek.  xvi,  7) :  "Thou  art  come  to  excellent  ornaments;  thy 
breasts  are  fashioned  and  thine  hair  is  grown  whereas  thou  wast 


Fig.  160. — "Sweet    Sixteen."      A    model 
from  nature. 


Fig.  161. — "A  Nymph,"  by  Toberenz. 


Female. 


male. 


L__ 
Fig.  162. — Sex   difference  in  form,   diagrammatic. 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  311 

naked  and  bare."  While  a  heavy  growth  of  hair  on  the  pubes 
was  highly  esteemed  by  the  ancient  Egyptians  and  Jews,  as  it 
is  also  by  ourselves,  this  hair  was  removed  by  the  women  of  many 
ancient  as  well  as  modern  Asiatic  people.  Curiously  enough,  this 
Asiatic  bare  mons  Veneris  has  become  the  accepted  form  in  which 
artists  now  represent  this  part  of  the  female  body  (Fig.  161). 

The  typical  structural  sex  differences  between  man  and 
woman  are  illustrated  in  Fig.  1G2.  Man  is  the  toiler,  the  bread- 
winner, and  the  mechanical  part  of  the  body  preponderates. 
Woman's  highest  sphere  is  home  and  family  and  her  whole  body 
is  moulded  with  reference  to  her  chief  aim  in  life — Motherhood — 
Reproduction. 

Representing  the  mechanical  part  of  the  body  by  the  bones 
and  muscles  of  the  arms  and  shoulders,  and  the  sexual  functions 
by  the  pelvis,  the  relative  importance  of  these  two  characteris- 
tics in  the  two  sexes  is  here  diagrammatically  shown,  and  inci- 
dentally the  essential  difference  in  shape  is  also  indicated. 

The  man's  body  as  a  rule  is  large  and  strong,  with  bony 
joints  and  with  well-marked  muscles  capable  of  great  physical 
exertion,  with  shoulders  broad  and  the  body  tapering  wedge- 
shaped  to  the  feet;  the  man  is  aggressive,  intellectual,  but  not 
" beautiful"  in  the  ordinary  sense; 

"for  contemplation  he  and  valor  formed." 

(Milton.) 

Man  chooses  his  mate  mainly  for  her  physical  beauty,  and  the 
woman,  through  this  sexual  selection  by  the  man,  which  has  gone 
on  for  untold  ages,  has  become  the  most  beautiful  object  in  crea- 
tion; small,  smooth-skinned,  fair,  plump,  round  and  dimpled. 

Fortunately  we  do  not  go  much  amiss  in  choosing  a  wife  for 
her  beauty  of  body;  "a  fine  form,  a  good  figure,  beautiful  bust, 
round  arms  and  neck,  fresh  complexion  and  lovely  face,  are  all 
outward  and  visible  signs  of  the  physical  qualities  that  make  up 
a  healthy  and  vigorous  wife  and  mother;  they  imply  soundness, 
fertility,  good  circulation  and  good  digestion." 

Figure  163  shows  the  statue  of  Hercules,  now  generally  called 
the  Farnese  Hercules  because  it  is  in  the  Farnese  gallery  in  Rome; 
it  shows  the  cuneate  or  wedge  shape  of  the  male  body,  by  some- 
what exaggerating  the  development  of  the  shoulders  and  arms. 

In  Fig.  164  is  shown  a  representation  of  a  statue  of  Anti- 


312 


SEX  AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


nous,  the  favorite  of  the  Emperor  Hadrian,  of  Rome ;  in  the  days 
of  Hadrian  he  was  considered  the  most  beautiful  man  that  ever 
lived  and  Hadrian  had  many  statues  erected  to  perpetuate  his 
beauty.  After  the  death  of  Antinous,  these  statues  were  placed  in 
the  temples  and  divine  honors  were  paid  to  them.  Modern  writers 
often  say  that  the  statue  of  Apollo  Belvidere  is  the  most  perfect 
type  of  male  form;  others  object  that  all  Apollos  are  too  effem- 
inate in  form. 

But  it  is  only  when  we  see  the  naked  woman  that  we  can  ap- 
preciate the  full  beauty  of  the  human  body  (Fig.  165)  ;-she  is  the 


Fig.  163. — "Farnese  Hercules;"  antique     Fig.  164.— Antinous,  favorite  of  Emperor 
statue  in  Rome.  Hadrian,  Rome. 

crowning  jewel  of  Creation!  Of  her  Milton  said  "for  softness 
she,  and  sweet  attractive  grace  was  formed."  We  have  cause  to 
be  thankful  for  and  to  rejoice  in  the  esthetic  emotions  which  en- 
able us  to  appreciate  her  loveliness,  even  though  we  admit  the 
truth  of  what  Spenser  wrote  300  years  ago : 

"Beauty  is  the  bait  which  with  delight, 
Doth  man  ensnare  for  to  enlarge  his  kind. ' ' 

The  word  "Beauty"  as  applied  to  the  human  body  (Fig.  166) 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


313 


is  always  applied  to  feminine  loveliness — to  woman's  shapely 
form  and  features.    Rochester  said  of  Beauty: 

"Oh,  she  is  the  Pride  and  Glory  of  the  World; 
Without  her,  all  the  rest  is  worthless  dross ; 
Life  a  base  slavery ;  Empire  but  a  mock ; 
And  Love — the  Soul  of  All — a  bitter  curse. ' ' 
And  Dryden  said  of  Beauty: 

Marck  her  ma jestick  f abrick ;  she 's  a  temple 
Sacred  by  birth  and  built  by  hands  divine." 


Fig.  165. — A   beautiful   woman. 


Fig.  166. — A   beautiful   woman. 


''Socrates  called  Beauty  a  short-lived  tyranny;  Plato,  a  priv- 
ilege of  nature;  Theophrastus,  a  silent  cheat;  Theocritus,  a  de- 
lightful prejudice;  Carneades,  a  solitary  kingdom;  Aristotle  af- 
firmed that  Beauty  was  better  than  all  the  letters  of  recommenda- 
tion in  the  world;  Homer,  that  it  was  a  glorious  gift  of  nature; 
and  Ovid  called  it  a  favor  bestowed  by  the  Gods. ' ' 

Artists  see  in  the  representations  of  the  naked  woman  the 
end  and  fulness  of  art.  The  highest  type  of  beauty  is  that  of 
naked  woman.  At  the  shrine  of  naked  woman  the  artists  of  all 
times  and  the  men  of  all  nations  and  all  climes  pay  homage  and 
recognize  in  her  "The  Source,"  the  "Spring,"  the  "Fountain," 
and  the  "Inspiration"  for  the  best  work  in  all  the  arts  (Fig.  167). 


314  SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

"Who  doth  not  feel,  until  his  failing  sight 
Faints  into  dimness  with  its  own  delight 
His  changing  cheek,  his  sinking  heart  confess, 
The  Might,  the  Majesty,  of  Loveliness." 

(Byron.) 

A  beautiful  woman  has  been  described  as  an  edition  de  luxe 
of  the  most  charming  work  by  the  greatest  of  all  Authors;  the 
edition  is  large,  and  every  man  should  secure  a  copy  for  himself. 

"0  Woman!  Whose  form  and  whose  soul 
Are  the  spell  and  the  light  of  each  path  we  pursue, 
Whether  sunn'd  at  the  tropics,  or  chill 'd  at  the  pole, 
If  woman  is  there,  there  is  happiness,  too !" 


Fig.  167. — "The  Source,"  from  painting  by  Thirion. 

CREDULITY 

It  is  hard  to  imagine  anything  that  the  credulity  of  the  human 
mind  can  not  accept  as  believable.  This  does  not  mean  only  among 
the  ignorant,  but  among  the  educated  as  well.  On  the  other  hand, 
scepticism  may  become  as  great  an  evil  as  credulity.  When  the 
discoveries  of  the  x-ray  and  the  phonograph  were  first  announced, 
some  scientists  regarded  the  report  as  a  hoax. 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  315 

But  really  scientific  men  neither  accept  nor  reject  such  an- 
nouncements offhand,  but  carefully  investigate,  before  expressing 
an  opinion;  and  even  then,  they  may  come  to  wrong  conclusions 
as  was  the  case  in  the  following  story,  related  in  an  encyclopedic 
history  of  the  world,  entitled  Welt-Gemaelde  Gallerie,  published 
in  1740  in  17  volumes,  occupying  about  5  feet  of  shelf-room: 

"A  poor  boy  in  Saxony  (1593)  lost  a  molar  tooth  in  the  sev- 
enth year  of  his  age ;  but  another  tooth  grew  in  its  place  which  con- 
sisted of  solid  gold.  Whereupon  the  celebrated  physician,  Jacobus 
Horsting,  Professor  at  Helmstadt,  examined  the  case  and  reported 
that  there  was  no  fraud  but  that  the  tooth  really  was  good  ducat 
gold."  This  case  is  generally  mentioned  in  works  on  Medical 
History. 

I  have  frequently  seen  books,  the  authors  of  which  said  of 
certain  things — "it  is  not  known"— or  "it  can  not  be  explained." 
In  such  cases  a  more  correct  mode  of  expression  would  be  "I 
do  not  know"  or  "I  can  not  explain,"-— because  in  some  such 
cases  others  could  have  explained  to  the  authors  what  they  said 
could  not  be  explained.  Yet  there  are  some  statements  that  are 
so  preposterous,  so  contrary  to  our  experience,  that  we  are  justi- 
fied in  proclaiming  them  to  be  impossible;  yet  such  statements 
may  be  made  and  believed  in  good  faith  by  some  who  are  more 
credulous.  This  disposition  to  believe  readily,  is  the  basis  on 
which  rests  much  of  the  superstructure  of  the  various  religions 
and  mythologies  of  the  world. 

I  will  relate  here  some  circumstances  reported  as  facts  in 
the  History  mentioned  above,  which  I  think  will  not  be  believed 
by  any  of  my  readers. 

Veronace,  or  Veronica,  is  the  name  assigned  by  tradition  to 
the  woman  cured  of  an  issue  of  blood  by  touching  the  robe  of  Je- 
sus (Mark  v,  25-34);  she  is  said  to  have  wiped  the  perspiration 
from  the  brow  of  Jesus  on  his  way  to  the  crucifixion  with  a  napkin 
or  handkerchief,  and  the  features  of  Jesus  were  thereby  im- 
pressed on  the  fabric.  It  is  said  that  this  napkin  is  still  kept  in 
St.  Peter's  Church  at  Rome. 

"At  the  Court  of  Emperor  Wenceslaus  of  Bohemia,  toward 
the  end  of  the  XIV  Century,  there  was  a  magician  who  was  skilled 
in  the  black  and  damnable  art  of  sorcery  beyond  all  others.  He 
swallowed  a  competing  sorcerer  alive  and  afterwards  passed  him 
from  his  bowels  into  a  tub,  to  the  great  amusement  of  the  emperor 


316  SEX  AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

and  his  court.  But  at  last  his  master  whom  he  served — the  devil — 
caught  him  up  and  carried  him  into  the  air  and  tore  him  to  pieces. ' ' 

This  same  history  tells  us  that  Wenceslaus  showed  in  infancy 
that  he  would  grow  up  to  be  a  bad  man.  It  was  a  requirement 
in  those  days  that  those  to  be  baptized  had  to  be  naked ;  when  the 
baby  Wenceslaus  (1368)  was  immersed  in  the  baptismal  font,  he 
urinated  and  defecated  into  it  which  was  taken  as  an  omen  that 
he  would  grow  up  an  impious  and  wicked  man. 

' 'In  1380  a  very  large  stag  was  captured  on  whose  neck  was 
a  heavily  gilded  copper  collar  on  which  was  engraved:  'Hoc  me 
Caesar  donavit'  (Caesar  gave  me  this),  from  which  it  followed 
that  the  stag  was  about  1400  years  old." 

In  1386,  according  to  this  same  truthful  work,  we  are  told 
that  "in  Flanders  a  peculiar  sea-monster  was  caught,  namely  a 
mermaid  resembling  a  woman,  which  was  kept  in  captivity  in 
Harlem  and  educated  so  that  it  could  do  all  sorts  of  feminine 
work  and  could  hardly  be  distinguished  from  a  human  being,  ex- 
cept that  it  could  not  talk"  (of  course  this  proved  that  it  was 
not  a  real  woman!). 

"About  the  beginning  of  the  XIV  Century  the  house  in  which 
the  annunciation  to  Mary  was  made,  was  transported  by  angels 
from  Nazareth  to  Loreto,  where  it  still  stands  as  a  shrine  for 
pilgrimage"  (Fig.  168). 

"In  1284  a  delegation  from  Poland  came  to  Rome  to  ask  the 
pope  to  give  them  the  body  of  a  saint  to  become  the  patron  saint 
of  their  country.  The  pope  went  with  them  to  a  crypt  where  lay 
the  bodies  of  several  saints,  and  in  a  joking  manner  asked  these 
bodies — "Who  wants  to  become  patron  saint  of  Poland?"  The 
body  of  the  Holy  Martyr  Florian  thereupon  raised  his  hand  and 
was  taken  home  to  Poland  by  the  delegation"  (Fig.  169). 

"In  1628,  in  Jetzehohe  in  Holstein,  occurred  a  terrible  affair; 
a  spook  or  ghost  one  night  twisted  off  the  heads  of  twenty  oxen. 
In  the  following  year  ghosts  twisted  off  the  heads  of  12  persons 
at  Frankfort." 

"In  1694,  in  Wiirttemberg  near  Hohen-Asberg,  several  oak- 
trees  produced  from  their  own  branches  a  crop  of  genuine  and 
well-tasting  grapes. ' ' 

"In  1697  a  report  came  from  Rome  that  a  woman  who  had 
been  married  for  19  years,  suddenly  changed  sex  to  that  of  a  male, 
so  that  the  marriage  had  to  be  dissolved." 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  317 

1  'Near  Rostock,  in  Mecklenburg,  a  woman  gave  birth  to  fifteen 
living  children  at  one  time,  all  of  whom  remained  alive." 

1  'In  Rome  a  woman  gave  birth  to  three  sons  and  two  daugh- 
ters all  of  whom  remained  alive ;  the  pope  granted  her  an  annuity 
to  help  raise  them." 

"In  1605,  in  the  city  of  Speyer,  a  girl  12  years  old  was  found 


Fig.  168. — Angels  transferring  the  house  in  which  the  annunciation   took  place,  from 

Nazareth  to  Loreto. 


Fig.  169. — The  'Corpse  of  St.  Florian  signifying  his  willingness  to  become  the  patron 

saint  of  Poland. 

who  had  not  taken  food  for  two  years;  and  a  young  woman  who 
had  abstained  from  all  food  for  seven  years." 

"In  1709,  at  Chareaudun,  France,  the  governor's  wife,  50 
years  old,  gave  birth  at  the  same  time  to  four  boys  and  three 
girls." 

"Near  Venlo,  France,  a  50  year  old  spinster  was  found  who 


318  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

had  taken  neither  food  nor  drink  in  fourteen  years.  She  did  not 
appear  Avasted,  except  that  she  had  to  lie  in  bed  continually. ' ' 

' '  The  year  1722  was  a  fruitful  year.  Many  women  gave  birth 
to  triplets.  At  Ahorn,  near  Coburg,  a  woman  gave  birth  to  four 
boys,  and  at  Corin  on  the  Lossa  another  woman  had  four  girls. 
At  Petersburg  a  poor  woman  gave  birth  to  six  living  children. 
At  Arozzo,  near  Florence,  a  woman  childless  during  47  years  of 
married  life,  gave  birth  to  a  son  in  her  86th  year." 

"At  Temesvar  there  were  living,  in  1727,  a  couple,  the  man 
172,  the  woman  162  years  old ;  they  had  been  married  for  146 
years,  and  their  great-grandson  was  26  years  old." 

* '  The  Bavarian  baron,  Babone  of  Ahrensberg,  with  two  wives, 
had  32  sons  and  8  daughters,  all  of  whom  grew  to  maturity. 

But  the  following  story  takes  the  medal!  "The  sister  of 
Emperor  William  of  Bavaria,  who  was  murdered  in  1256,  was 
Margaret,  Duchess  of  Henneberg.  Once  upon  a  time  a  poor 
woman,  carrying  twins  in  her  arms,  asked  her  for  assistance. 
But  the  Duchess  drove  her  away,  calling  her  a  whore,  saying  that 
it  was  impossible  to  have  two  children  at  one  time  from  one  man. 
The  poor  woman  called  upon  God  to  prove  her  innocence  and 
prayed  that  He  would  cause  Margaret  to  have  as  many  children  as 
there  were  days  in  a  year;  she  then  went  away.  At  her  next 
confinement  the  Duchess  gave  birth  to  365  children,  all  living,  and 
each  of  about  the  size  of  a  little  chick,  one-half  boys  and  one-half 
girls,  all  of  which  were  baptized  by  the  Bishop  of  Utrecht,  nam- 
ing all  the  boys  'John'  and  all  the  girls  'Elizabeth.'  But  they 
all,  as  well  as  the  mother,  died  the  same  day"  (Fig.  170). 

And  mind  you,  these  stories  before  publication  passed  the 
critical  (?!)  censorship  of  the  editorial  force  of  an  Encyclopedia 
of  History!  They  were  practically  vouched  for  as  true!  There 
were  a  few  such  stories  in  regard  to  which  doubt  was  expressed, 
but  this  simply  emphasized  that  where  no  doubt  was  expressed, 
they  were  approved  as  being  verified  and  true. 

It  is  definitely  claimed  by  some  ecclesiastical  writers  that  it 
is  better  to  believe  by  faith  than  by  reason ;  that  there  are  many 
things  that  our  reason  may  reject,  and  that  it  becomes  our  duty 
to  believe  them  anyhow.  This  is  easily  said,  but  an  honest  man 
can  not  do  this.  As  most  people  look  at  the  subject,  things  that 
are  contrary  to  reason  can  not  and  must  not  be  accepted ;  it  is  dis- 
honest to  do  so.  Nobody  would  make  this  a  duty,  when  it  applies 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  319 

to  stories  like  the  above;  why  should  it  be  a  duty  in  other  matters 
even  more  important  than  these. 

There  are  those  who  can,  or  pretend  they  can,  believe  what 
they  are  told ;  they  make  good  "believers."  There  are  others  who 
doubt  and  can  not  believe  until  they  are  convinced  of  the  truth  of 
a  statement.  Whether  this  statement  is  actually  true  or  not  has 
nothing  to  do  with  the  case,  for  if  anyone  is  convinced  that  some- 
thing is  true  and  he  believes  it,  it  might  nevertheless  be  untrue, 
and  vice  versa. 

Scientific  men  approach  various  problems  from  a  sceptical 
standpoint;  they  hold  aloof  from  conclusions  while  they  inves- 
tigate. Their  researches  may  lead  them  to  believe  certain  con- 
clusions, or  they  may  be  confirmed  in  their  attitude  of  doubt;  in 


Fig.  170. — Three   hundred   and    sixty-five    children    at   one   birth,   from    Welt-Gemaelde 

Gallerie,  1740-1780. 

the  latter  case  we  call  this  mental  attitude  scepticism — which  is 
practically  a  despairing  of  a  possibility  to  know  the  truth;  it  is 
an  honest  doubt  regarding  what  Herbert  Spencer  called  the 
"Unknowable." 

Agnosticism  is  also  a  doubt,  but  one  that  has  not  come  to  any 
final  conclusion;  it  leaves  the  mind  open  to  further  argument. 
Practically,  an  agnostic  is  in  the  position  of  one  who  asserts  "I  do 
not  know."  The  terms  "agnostic"  and  "agnosticism"  were  in- 
troduced by  Huxley  in  1869 ;  they  were  suggested  by  the  inscrip- 
tion "agnosto  tlieo"  (to  the  unknown  God),  Acts  xvii,  23. 

Many  think  that  Atheism  and  Agnosticism  are  the  same  thing, 
but  they  are  not.  Atheism  was  very  popular  about  the  middle  of 
the  nineteenth  century ;  it  was  characterized  by  David  in  the  fifty- 


320  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

third  psalm:  "The  fool  hath  said  in  his  heart,  There  is  no  God." 
The  "fool"  part  of  this  proposition  is  not  the  unbelief  in  a  god, 
but  the  pretending  to  a  knowledge  in  regard  to  the  existence  or 
non-existence  of  a  god  that  is  not  given  to  man.  It  is  an  opinion 
that  is  as  unjustifiable  as  the  positive  assertions  in  regard  to  the 
existence  and  to  the  nature  of  God  made  by  those  of  the  opposite 
mental  temperament. 

Atheism  means  a  denial  of  the  existence  of  God;  most  men 
who  call  themselves  atheists  are  not  so  in  fact;  to  not  believe  in 
the  existence  of  a  God  because  we  are  not  convinced  that  he  exists 
is  not  atheism,  but  agnosticism;  an  agnostic  does  not  believe  in 
God  because  he  has  not  been  convinced  that  a  God  exists,  and  per- 
haps believes  that  it  is  impossible  to  have  any  knowledge  on  the 
subject ;  and  atheism  pretends  to  know  positively  that  there  is  no 
God,  which  is  quite  another  matter.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  athe- 
ists are  few  now  while  agnostics  are  quite  plentiful. 

The  poet  Young  expressed  the  sex-difference  in  regard  to 
this  subject  as  follows : 

"Atheists  have  been  but  rare;  since  nature's  birth 
Till  now,  she-atheists  ne'er  appeared  on  earth." 

Although  Cicero  thought  "that  we  are  led  by  nature  to  think 
that  there  are  gods,  and  as  we  discover,  by  reason,  of  what  descrip- 
tion they  are,"  neither  of  these  propositions  is  easy  for  us  to 
accept.  "We  can  not,  by  reason,  come  to  any  positive  knowledge 
of  a  God  or  Creator  of  the  universe;  yet  it  is  just  as  difficult  to 
imagine  that  the  universe  created  itself;  if  we  allow  ourselves  to 
be  influenced  by  the  greater  intuitive  insight  of  women,  to  believe 
that  there  is  a  God,  we  may  possibly  believe  the  truth ;  but  we  can 
not  know  it.  Therefore,  from  the  standpoint  of  reason,  alone, 
agnosticism  is  most  alluring;  from  the  standpoint  of  inherited 
ideas  and  from  intuition,  theism  appeals  to  us.  But  atheism  is 
more  or  less  foreign  to  human  nature. 

Pliny  the  Elder  (I  Century,  A.D.)  did  not  deny  the  gods,  but 
he  said:  "It  is  ridiculous  to  suppose  that  the  great  head  of  all 
things,  whatever  it  be,  pays  any  regard  to  human  affairs. ' ' 

Among  the  ancient  philosophers  agnosticism  was  not  uncom- 
mon; but  among  the  early  Christians  faith  was  substituted  for 
reason.  It  is  related  of  Tertullian,  an  early  Christian  writer,  that 
he  claimed  faith  to  be  higher  than  reason,  and  gave  the  following 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  321 

as  an  example:  "Crucifixus  est  Dei  films;  et  mortuus  est  Dei  filius; 
prorsus  est  quid  inept um  est.  Et  sepultus,  resurrexit;  cerium 
est,  quid  impossibile  est."  Which  means:  "The  Son  of  God  was 
crucified;  and  the  Son  of  God  died;  this  is  true  because  it  is  silly. 
And  having  been  buried,  he  rose  again ;  this  is  to  be  depended 
upon,  because  it  is  impossible."  The  age  when  such  reasoning 
was  acceptable  is  fast  disappearing.  To  believe  that  God  could 
make  the  sun  stand  still  for  Joshua  is  asking  one  to  believe  what 
is  impossible;  to  say  that  it  "must  be  true  because  it  is  absurd," 
is  worse  than  no  argument  at  all. 

Hugo  Grotius,  who  lived  from  1583  to  1645  was  one  of  the 
first,  or  possibly  the  first  writer  on  law,  who  tried  to  establish  a 
proper  basis  for  the  laws  of  government  outside  of  the  Bible; 
and  he  wrote:  "The  law  of  nature  is  unalterable;  God  Himself 
can  not  alter  it  any  more  than  he  can  alter  a  mathematical  axiom. 
The  law  has  its  source  in  the  nature  of  man  as  a  social  being;  it 
would  be  valid  even  if  there  were  no  God,  or  if  God  did  not  inter- 
fere in  the  government  of  the  world." 

What  Grotius  says  of  law  is  true  of  all  our  beliefs.  They 
must  not  go  against  the  laws  of  nature;  if  any  statement  goes 
against  the  laws  of  nature,  or  against  common  sense,  it  can  not 
be  believed;  it  is  unbelievable. 

Lycanthropy 

When  Lycaon,  the  first  mythical  King  of  Arcadia,  introduced 
the  worship  of  Zeus  into  his  country,  he  invited  the  god  to  be  his 
guest  at  a  banquet  (he  made  a  sacrifice)  at  which  he  set  before 
the  god  a  dish  cooked  from  human  flesh  (made  a  human  sacrifice). 
Zeus  was  so  disgusted  and  offended  that  he  pushed  the  dish  away 
and  punished  the  King  by  changing  him  into  a  wolf ;  according  to 
some  other  authors  he  killed  him  with  a  thunderbolt  (Fig.  171). 

Superstitious  men  in  all  times  believed  that  magicians,  sor- 
cerers, witches  and  the  gods  could  accomplish  changes  of  this  kind 
at  will;  the  assuming  of  the  forms  of  animals  or  other  forms  is 
called  Lycanthropy, — a  Greek  word  implying  a  change  to  a  wolf, 
as  in  the  case  of  were-wolves — but  is  made  to  include  all  changes 
of  former  identity. 

Witches  (Fig.  172)  made  themselves  invisible  by  anointing 
their  bodies  with  an  ointment  made  of  human  fat;  or  they  could 


322 


SEX  AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


make  candles  by  the  light  of  which  they  could  see,  but  to  others 
the  darkness  remained,  by  digging  up  the  body  of  a  child,  cutting 
off  its  fingers  and  pulling  wicks  through  them  and  using  these  as 
candles. 

Sorcerers  changed  themselves  into  were-wolves  or  vampires, 
or  they  could  fly  through  the  air,  etc.  Belief  in  the  power  of 
sorcerers,  fairies,  witches,  etc.,  to  assume  different  shapes,  or  to 
change  others  into  animals  was  very  widespread.  Fairy  tales  and 
folklore  abound  in  stories  of  this  character. 

Of  course,  what  men  could  do,  the  gods  could  also  do,  and  so 


Fig.  171. — Lycaon,  changed  to  a  wolf. 
Engraving,   XVIII   Century. 


Fig.  172. — "The  Witches,"  painted  about 
1500,  by  Hans  Baldung. 


we  find  stories  in  mythology,  especially  in  Greek  mythology,  of 
changes  of  this  kind.  It  is  not  the  intention  to  enumerate  many 
such  cases ;  a  few  will  suffice. 

A  curious  story  of  belief  in  lycanthropy  was  found  among 
the  ancient  Aztecs.  The  prehistoric  Mexicans  believed  that  preg- 
nant women  would  be  changed  to  beasts,  and  their  children  to  mice, 
if  any  mistakes  were  made  in  the  rituals  of  certain  solemn  sacri- 
fices which  were  offered  by  women  in  an  "interesting"  condition. 

An  example  of  lycanthropy  was  related  on  p.  5,  about  Puru- 
sha,  a  Hindu  deity,  and  the  creation  of  the  various  animals. 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP 


323 


Alcmene  was  the  wife  of  Electryon,  king  of  Mycena;  Jupiter 
fell  in  love  with  her,  and  assuming  the  shape  of  Electryon,  while 
the  latter  was  away  from  home,  went  to  Alcmene  and  slept  with 
her.  From  this  union  resulted  Hercules,  a  mortal,  who  after  his 
death  was  changed  into  a  god. 

Greek  legend  records  that  Jupiter  fell  in  love  with  Antiope, 
the  beautiful  daughter  of  the  river  god  Asopus.  Jupiter  assumed 
the  shape  of  a  satyr,  and  committed  rape  on  Antiope.  Then 
Epopeus,  King  of  Sicyon,  took  her  against  her  will,  but  he  was 
compelled  by  her  uncle  Lycus  to  give  her  up  again.  On  the  way 


Fig.  173. — Title  page  of  Webster's 
work  on  witchcraft  (1719);  shows  the 
witches  as  a  fever  delirium. 


Fig.  174. — Daphne  pursued  by  Apollo, 
changed  to  a  laurel  tree.  Engraving, 
XVIII  Century. 


home  she  gave  birth  to  the  twins  Amphion  and  Zethus ;  some  said 
that  Amphion  was  the  son  of  Jupiter,  while  Zethus  was  the  son 
of  Epopeus. 

Ovid  relates  a  story  that  Actaeon,  while  hunting  in  the  forest 
with  his  hounds,  came  upon  a  secluded  nook  where  the  goddess 
Diana  was  bathing  in  company  with  her  attendant  nymphs.  The 
virgin  goddess  felt  so  outraged  at  having  been  seen  naked  by 
Actaeon,  that  she  changed  him  into  a  stag,  who  was  then  chased 
by  his  own  dogs  and  torn  to  pieces. 


324  SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

Jupiter  changed  himself  into  a  bull,  to  abduct  Europa;  into 
a  golden  rain,  to  find  access  to  a  tower  in  which  Danae  was  con- 
fined, after  which  he  accomplished  his  desires  by  impregnating 
her;  he  changed  himself  into  a  swan  to  approach  Leda,  whom  he 
made  pregnant;  and  a  number  of  similar  stories  are  told  of  this 
amorous  god. 

Apollo  became  enamoured  of  the  nymph  Daphne  and  pursued 
her  to  commit  rape;  she  appealed  to  the  river  god  Peneus,  who 
changed  her  into  a  laurel  tree  (Fig.  174) ;  Apollo  decreed  that 
ever  after  wreaths  of  laurel  leaves  should  be  conferred  on  victors, 
and  he  himself  wore  such  a  wreath. 

As  a  rule,  the  sex  was  not  changed  in  such  transformations. 
The  Scandinavian  god  Loki,  a  spirit  of  evil,  however,  changed 
himself  into  a  mare,  and  foaled  the  eight-legged  horse  of  Wodan. 

Many  transformations  into  stars  are  told,  but  of  these  more 
elsewhere. 

The  Kingfisher  is  a  bird  inhabiting  the  territory  about  the 
Mediterranean  Sea  (the  Alcedo  ispida  of  the  ornithologists) ;  it 
is  blue-green  above  and  rich  chestnut  on  the  breast.  In  medieval 
times  it  was  believed  to  have  been  the  bird  which  was  sent  out 
from  the  ark  by  Noah;  at  that  time  ho\vever  the  Kingfisher  was 
a  very  plain  gray  bird.  It  flew  straight  up  to  heaven  to  get  a 
wide  survey  of  the  waters  of  the  flood,  and  in  so  doing  came  so 
near  the  sun  that  its  breast  was  scorched  to  its  present  tint  and 
its  back  assumed  the  color  of  the  sky  overhead. 

Its  dried  body  kept  in  a  house  protected  against  lightning 
and  kept  moths  out  of  the  garments. 

In  Greek  mythology  the  unfortunate  Ceyx  and  Alcyone  were 
transformed  into  Kingfishers. 

ORIGIN  OF  RELIGIOUS  IDEAS 

We  have  no  basis  for  fixing  the  time  when  mankind  com- 
menced to  be  interested  in  speculations  about  the  gods  and  god- 
desses. When  we  look  at  the  features  of  the  Pithecanthropus 
(p.  26)  we  can  readily  see  that  such  a  creature,  called  "pre- 
human" by  some,  but  generally  admitted  to  have  been  archaic 
human,  could  not  philosophize  on  such  subjects.  His  habits  were 
probably  similar  to  those  of  the  animals  about  him;  he  does  not 
look  as  if  he  had  had  speech,  and  his  intellectual  wants  were 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


325 


exceedingly  limited.  It  is  doubtful  whether  his  actions  were  gov- 
erned by  reasoning;  more  likely  they  were  instinctive,  satisfying 
his  hunger,  his  sexual  desires,  etc.,  and  perhaps  being  able  to 
make  rude  stone  implements,  or  dig  shelters  or  burrows  for 
himself.  We  can  not  imagine  that  he  formed  any  ideas  of  a  re- 
ligious character,  except  perhaps  that  he  may  have  been  afraid 
of  ghosts,  or  dreams,  which  has  even  been  observed  in  dogs.  But 
the  Pithecanthropus,  who  probably  lived  from  2,000,000  to  500,000 
years  ago,  did  not  live  in  Western  Asia,  or  in  Southeastern  Eu- 
rope, in  the  neighborhoods  where  we  find  the  first  traces  of  an 
intellectual  development  of  man. 

Nor  is  it  likely  that  any  man  of  the  Piltdown  or  the  Eoan- 


Fig.  175. — Piltdown     man,    reconstructed     Fig.  176. — The   Neanderthal    man;    after 
from   skull   found   in   Sussex,   England.  Osborn  's  Men  of  the  Old  Stone  Age. 

thropos  (dawn  of  man)  type,  the  earliest  form  of  man  found  in 
Europe,  who  lived  there  500,000  years  to  100,000  years  ago  was 
capable  of  great  intellectual  accomplishments  (Fig.  175). 

In  the  latter  periods  of  the  Glacial  age  appeared  still  another 
type  of  man,  who,  like  the  preceding,  probably  came  from  Asia, 
but  who  certainly  was  not  a  European  product  of  evolution ;  he  was 
the  Neanderthal  man  (Fig.  176),  who  lived  in  Southern  Europe 
(France,  Spain,  Italy,  etc.)  50,000  and  more  years  ago.  This  gen- 
tleman also  does  not  strike  us  as  having  much  ability  in  the  way 


326 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


of  deep  thinking  or  speculating  on  the  Unknown.     The  man  of 
Les  Chapelles  aux  Saints  was  a  relative  of  his. 

The  last  invasion  from  Asia  was  still  another  type,  called 
"Old  man  of  Cro-Magnon"  (Fig.  177).  A  restoration  of  his  fea- 
tures is  here  shown;  teeth  are  replaced  in  the  skull  and  the  lat- 
ter, or  a  cast  of  it,  is  covered  on  one  side  with  sculptor's  modeling 
wax,  to  the  thickness  the  soft  parts  of  the  head  usually  have,  and 
his  type  is  thus  "restored."  This  man  came  from  Asia,  perhaps 
15,000  to  30,000  years  ago.  He  was  in  all  probability  the  author 
of  the  wonderful  paintings  and  sculptures  that  have  been  discov- 
ered in  the  caves  of  Southern  Europe,  and  he  was  of  the  type  of 


Fig.  177. — Cro-Magnon  man;  restored  by  covering  the  skull  with  modeler's  wax  to  depth 
of   soft  tissues  on   living  men. 

our  European  ancestors,  who  descended  from  this  Homo  sapiens 
(the  knowing  man,  or  the  wise  man).* 

This  was  probably  the  type  called  "Aryan  stock"  which, 
originating  in  inner  Asia,  spread  out  over  India,  westward  to 
Greece  and  beyond  to  Europe.  It  was  probably  the  first  type  of 

*It  is  interesting  to  learn  in  this  connection  that  a  statement  was  published  in  September, 
1918,  under  the  auspices  of  the  French  Academic  des  Inscriptions,  regarding  the  finding  of  another 
cave  in  Southern  France  containing  ancient  cave  paintings.  These  works  of  art  are  estimated  to 
be  30,000  years  old,  and  include  figures  of  reindeers,  bisons,  horses,  bears,  elephants,  and  rhinoc- 
eroses; also,  a  bas-relief  figure  of  a  lion.  The  most  curious  figure  is  a  silhouette  of  a  man  in  mo- 
tion, whose  head  and  body  are  joined  by  an  enormous  neck;  the  upper  and  lower  limbs  are  per- 
fectly human,  but  the  end  of  the  vertebral  column  is  prolonged  into  a  distinct  tail,  and  he  goes 
on-all-fours. 


SEX    AND   SEX   WORSHIP  327 

human  to  whom  we  can  ascribe  some  of  that  primitive  folklore 
already  referred  to  as  having  been  developed  in  the  regions  about 
the  eastern  end  of  the  Mediterranean  basin ;  and  if  this  is  so,  then 
speculations  about  an  unknown  world,  a  world  of  ghosts,  of  de- 
mons, of  gods  and  goddesses,  first  originated  in  the  brains  of  this 
mighty  type  of  man,  before  whom  the  previous  types  disappeared, 
whether  by  war  and  conquest  and  extermination,  or  by  being  ab- 
sorbed by  interbreeding — who  can  tell? 

How  Myths  Travel  and  Become  Modified 

When  primitive  man  invented  a  fable  to  explain  any  phenom- 
enon of  nature,  he  may  not  have  intended  deliberately  to  start  a 
religious  belief  or  theory.  But  as  with  the  proverbial  liar,  who 
tells  a  story  so  often  that  he  finally  believes  it  himself,  some  of 
these  myths  gained  credence  as  facts.  Also,  as  in  the  case  when 
any  one  of  us  hears  a  good  story,  we  like  to  pass  it  along,  or  tell 
it  to  a  new  audience.  While  some  of  the  hearers  soon  forget  such 
fables,  others  retained  them  and  repeated  them,  although  with 
slight  variations  which,  by  many  repetitions,  became  more  dis- 
similar but  still  retaining  the  general  character  of  the  original 
version. 

The  progress  of  a  story  was  once  illustrated  thus :  When  first 
told,  it  was  a  lie ;  a  few  years  later  it  was  referred  to  as  a  fake ; 
after  25  years  it  was  a  fable ;  after  two  centuries  it  had  become  a 
myth;  after  five  centuries  it  was  a  tradition;  one  thousand  years 
had  made  it  into  an  accepted  belief,  and  at  the  end  of  two  thou- 
sand years  it  had  been  proclaimed  as  a  dogma  of  faith. 

The  myth  of  Adam  and  Eve,  for  instance,  traveled  practically 
around  the  world ;  it  was  known  to  most  of  ancient  Asia  and  Africa, 
when  Europe  was  practically  terra  incognita;  later  it  was  dissem- 
inated throughout  Europe  and  on  the  discovery  of  America  it 
was  carried  there  also.  In  Ceylon,  at  Adam's  Peak,  there  is  a 
foot-print  of  Adam  to  which  pilgrimages  were  made  many  cen- 
turies ago  by  the  early  inhabitants  of  that  Island  when  our  Euro- 
pean ancestors  were  still  savages ;  this  footprint  of  Adam  is  prob- 
ably just  as  authentic  as  the  one  of  Jesus,  which  is  shown  in  the 
garden  of  a  convent  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  near  Jerusalem.  The 
names  of  Adam  and  Eve  originated  in  India;  they  are  Sanskrit, 
and  the  early  Jews  probably  got  their  account  in  Genesis  from 
East  Indian  sources. 


328  SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

As  already  referred  to,  the  myth  is  known  to  many  people 
but  in  some  cases  with  different  names  and  modified  details.  It 
was  accepted  into  the  sacred  writings  of  the  Hindus,  Jews,  Chris- 
tians, Mohammedans,  etc.,  and  is  believed  in  by  millions  of  peo- 
ple who  regard  it  as  fact  and  not  as  myth. 

We  have  also  seen  how  similar  ideas  were  believed  in  ancient 
Egypt  and  India  and  Mexico  and  Yucatan.  How  such  stories 
were  so  widely  disseminated  can  not,  perhaps,  always  be  traced; 
but  we  can  get  some  idea  from  known  transmigrations  of  such 
ideas. 

In  Dutch  Guiana  (South  America)  there  are  three  tribes  of 
descendants  of  run-away  slaves,  mixtures  of  negro  and  Indian 
blood,  who  are  called  by  the  Dutch  "Bosch-Negers."  These  bush 
negroes  have  in  their  religion  traces  of  African  Voodooism,  South 
American  or  Indian  mythology,  together  with  curious  traces  of 
former  Christian  influence;  their  religion  is  a  curious  mixture  of 
belief  in  a  number  of  Pagan  deities,  but  their  chief  god  is  Gran- 
god  (grand  God),  his  wife  is  Maria,  and  his  son  is  Jesi  Kist. 

The  Javanese  are  generally  Mohammedans,  but  their  original 
religion  was  a  crude  animism,  a  belief  in  a  world-soul  which  per- 
meates all  things ;  since  everything,  even  sticks  or  stones,  con- 
tains some  of  this  world-soul,  fetichism  is  a  part  of  this  belief. 
To  this  original  belief  they  have  added  a  lot  of  later  ideas,  so  that 
their  present  system  of  belief  consists  of  a  mass  of  incongruous 
conceptions,  separate  elements  having  been  taken  from  various 
religions  with  which  they  have  come  into  contact. 

They  are  nominally  Mohammedans,  and  while  worshipping 
they  utter  the  Arabic  formula  ''There  is  no  God,  but  God,  and 
Mohammed  is  his  prophet;"  but  it  is  doubtful  whether  they  un- 
derstand what  it  means.  They  worship  a  great  many  spirits  which 
they  call  Hyang  or  Yang ;  every  village  has  its  own  Hyang  on  whom 
depends  the  weal  or  woe  of  that  community;  the  altars  for  these 
Hyangs  are  erected  under  trees  and  offerings  of  incense  or  flowers 
are  made  to  them. 

Some  of  these  spirits  are  equivalent  to  Disease  Demons  and 
must  be  propitiated;  thus  Mentik  causes  smut  in  the  rice  fields; 
Sawan  produces  convulsions  in  children ;  Dengen  causes  gout  and 
rheumatism;  Ki  gives  men  wealth  in  exchange  for  their  souls; 
Joseph  (from  the  Koran)  gives  them  beautiful  children;  they 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  329 

pray  to  Moses  for  bravery,  to  Solomon  for  wisdom,  to  Jesus  for 
learning,  etc. 

The  Congoese  religion  (inner  Africa)  is  a  gross  fetichism  or 
animism,  and  their  fetiches  are  made  by  their  sorcerers  from 
snail-shells,  bird-dung,  feathers,  etc.,  and  are  supposed  to  possess 
great  magical  powers;  but  their  most  potent  fetiches  are  Chris- 
tian crucifixes,  to  which  they  ascribe  greater  magical  powers  than 
ever  did  the  Christians,  and  they  consider  themselves  exceedingly 
lucky  if  they  can  get  one  of  these  charms  or  phylacteries. 

Abyssinia  contains  several  tribes,  but  the  majority  are  Cau- 
casians, although  of  very  dark  complexion.  They  are  a  well-built 
people.  Their  religion  is  a  primitive  Christianity,  corrupted  by 
many  Pagan  superstitions  and  Judaic  ritual;  for  instance,  they 
circumcise  their  boys,  follow  the  Mosaic  rules  about  food,  they 
baptize  their  children  according  to  the  Greek  church  rules  and 
keep  the  feast  and  fast  days  of  that  church;  they  worship  many 
saints  and  especially  they  worship  the  Virgin  whom  they  call  the 
Queen  of  Heaven  and  Earth,  and  whom  they  consider  the  mediator 
between  themselves  and  God;  marriages  are  patriarchal  and  po- 
lygamy is  permitted,  but  the  children  of  the  same  father  but  by 
different  mothers  grow  up  at  enmity  with  each  other.  They  also 
worship  the  river  Gaba,  which  they  consider  sacred,  as  the  Hindus 
do  the  Ganges;  on  the  feast  of  St.  John  the  Baptist  great  disor- 
derly crowds  of  Christians  bathe  in  this  river,  and  again,  on 
Christmas  day,  they  bathe  but  in  a  devout  and  orderly  manner. 
It  seems  that  one  sacred  bathing  da}7  is  tainted  with  survivals  of 
phallic  festival  ideas,  and  the  other  is  more  in  accordance  with 
Christian  ideas. 

Before  the  time  of  Mohammed  the  Arabs  were  Pagans  and 
worshipped  many  gods  and  goddesses ;  when  Mohammed  promul- 
gated his  religion  the  Arabs  adopted  this  religion,  the  main  tenet 
of  which  is  expressed  in  the  formula :  "There  is  no  God,  but  God ;" 
this  formula  is  repeated  at  the  beginning  of  every  prayer  by  a 
Mohammedan,  yet  the  Arabs  did  not  notice  anything  incongruous 
in  continuing  the  worship  of  their  former  deities,  who,  they  said, 
were  sons  of  Allah;  in  Mecca  the  goddesses,  probably  forms  of 
Astarte,  were  considered  to  be  daughters  of  Allah. 

As  is  the  case  with  most  other  religions,  they  ascribed  to  their 
gods  and  goddesses  the  same  sexual  relationships  that  prevailed 
among  themselves,  and  Allah  therefore  was  a  polygamist ;  and  he 


330  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

had  two  wives,  Al-Lat  and  Al-Ozza.  Mohammed  did  not  combat 
these  views  but  merely  ascribed  a  lower  rank  to  the  ancient  Pagan 
deities,  reducing  some  of  them  even  to  demons  and  kobolds,  etc. 

About  the  time  of  the  beginning  of  our  Era  there  was  a  period 
of  great  unrest  among  the  thinkers  of  the  world.  Greek  philosophy, 
Platonism,  Neo-Platonism,  Manichaeism,  Montanism,  Gnosticism, 
made  great  inroads  on  the  older  faiths,  and  Judaism  underwent 
many  changes.  Then,  when  Christianity  came,  it  too  met  with  all 
the  other  competing  ideas,  and  while  at  first  it  was  fairly  free  from 
Pagan  ideas,  it  soon  adopted  the  policy  of  making  converts  by 
adapting  itself  to  their  views,  so  as  not  to  make  a  change  from 
one  of  the  other  faiths  to  Christianity  too  abrupt  or  difficult. 

The  Christian  Church  took  oyer  everything  it  possibly  could 
and  gave  Christian  explanations  for  the  Pagan  festivals,  philos- 
ophy, etc. ;  in  this  way  the  simple  faith  of  the  early  Christians  be- 
came swamped  with  foreign  ideas,  but  the  church-fathers  amal- 
gamated all  the  ideas  into  one  more  or  less  congruous  mass  of 
doctrines,  so  that  it  has  been  fairly  said,  that  ''modern  Chris- 
tianity is  based  on  pre-Christian  Paganism  and  post-Christian 
metaphysics."  Much  of  what  modern  Christians  believe  is  not 
based  on  the  Bible,  but  is  derived  from  other  sources. 

For  instance,  at  a  very  early  stage  of  Christianity,  they  be- 
lieved in  One  God ;  the  belief  was  Unitarian ;  by  about  the  begin- 
ning of  the  third  century  the  belief  that  Jesus  was  a  son  of  God, 
and  was  himself  a  God,  prevailed  quite  generally,  and  then  when  a 
third  person,  the  Holy  Ghost,  was  accepted  by  the  church,  the 
belief  was  Trinitarian.  These  two  divisions  were  fairly  even  in 
numbers;  but  the  influence  of  Origen  (a  fanatical  self -castrated 
zealot)  established  the  theory  of  the  Trinity  more  and  more  firmly, 
until  by  about  400  A.D.  the  belief  in  the  Trinity  was  general. 

The  philosophical  definition  of  the  Trinity  varied  much ;  some 
holding  that  the  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost  were  but  different 
names  for  the  same  God,  but  manifesting  himself  in  different 
phases,  and  that  the  Trinity  was  of  the  same  order  as  when  Plato 
and  the  later  philosophers  said  of  man  that  he  was  a  Trinity  of 
Soul,  Mind  and  Body.  So  God  manifested  himself  as  the  Creator 
(Father),  the  Redeemer  (Son),  and  the  Giver  of  Life  (Holy 
Ghost) ;  but  all  three  were  but  manifestations  of  different  functions 
or  phases  of  the  same  tiling,  of  the  same  God.  Others,  and  pos- 
sibly the  majority,  believed  that  each  of  these  three  was  a  dis- 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  331 

tinct  individuality,  and  while  they  still  spoke  of  One  God,  they 
really  had  in  mind  Three  Gods. 

WHAT  ARE  THE  GODS?* 

The  habit  of  considering  one  religion  (your  own)  as  true  and 
all  others  as  false,  is  as  old  as  the  religions  themselves;  but  this 
intolerance  was  more  marked  in  medieval  Christian  religions  than 
at  any  other  time. 

Most  of  us,  probably,  inherit  our  faiths;  it  takes  courage  to 
change  them,  when  convinced  that  they  are  wrong.  Even  then, 
though  we  are  convinced  that  we  can  not  believe  them  any  longer, 
it  is  seldom  due  to  any  real  conviction,  but  mainly  from  mere 
sentiment. 

After  all,  the  old  Greek  philosopher  Philemon  was  as  near 
right  as  is  posible  for  the  human  mind  to  be,  when  he  said:  "Re- 
vere and  worship  God;  seek  not  to  know  more;  you  need  seek 
nothing  further." 

The  Greeks  originally  merely  called  the  gods  theoi — dispens- 
ers, but  had  no  names  for  them. 

"Whence  the  gods  severally  sprang,  whether  or  no  they  had 
existed  from  eternity,  what  forms  they  bore — these  are  questions 
of  which  the  Greeks  knew  nothing  until  the  other  day,  so  to  speak. 
For  Homer  and  Hesiod  were  the  first  to  compose  theogonies." 
(Herodotus,  about  450  B.C.). 

"We  are  led  by  nature  to  think  that  there  are  gods,  and  we 
discover  by  reason  of  what  nature  they  are."  (Cicero.) 

In  a  well-known  and  very  valuable  book  on  Phallic  worship 
the  author  ascribes  to  Homer  a  prayer  to  god:  "Hear  me,  0  King, 
whoever  thou  art!"  This  is  misleading;  Homer  had  very  definite 
ideas  about  the  gods,  and  according  to  him  each  river  had  its 
own  deity.  The  prayer  is  ascribed  to  Odysseus,  who  is  swimming 
toward  land,  but  encounters  a  strong  current  of  a  river  emptying 
into  the  sea;  he  does  not  know  what  river  it  is,  but  prays  to  the 
unknown  god  of  that  river,  and  his  prayer  is  heard;  he  escapes 
from  the  seaward  current  and  lands  safely. 

The  fables  told  about  the  gods  were  known  to  be  the  imagin- 
ings of  their  poets  and  writers  by  the  higher  classes  among  the 

*By  gods  we  mean  here  all  non-natural  or  supernatural  beings,  imagined  in  any  form,  but 
endowed  with  human  attributes  and  generally  as  sexual  beings;  often,  even,  as  very  salacious  beings. 


332  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

ancients,  but  by  the  ignorant  plebs  or  public  they  were  believed 
as  true. 

Plato  and  Socrates  candidly  confessed  that  they  would  not 
attempt  to  define  the  great  First  Cause. 

Menander,  a  Greek  Gnostic,  said:  "Seek  not  to  learn  who 
God  is;  they  who  are  anxious  to  know  what  may  not  be  known, 
are  impious."  Menander  anticipated  the  views  of  Herbert  Spen- 
cer about  the  "Unknowable"  by  several  thousand  years. 

Some  modern,  as  well  as  ancient  writers  say  that  all  gods 
were  men ;  in  other  words,  that  they  were  deified  heroes.  This  is 
probably  true  of  many  but  does  not  apply  to  all.  Herbert  Spen- 
cer's idea  that  the  origin  of  the  god  idea  must  be  sought  in  an- 
cestor worship  is  a  similar  view. 

Some  explain  the  myths  about  the  gods  as  a  deification  of 
elementary  forces  and  phenomena ;  thus,  rivers  are  sons  of  Terra 
(earth)  and  Oceanus  (ocean) ;  the  evaporated  water  from  Ocean 
falls  on  Earth  (fertilizes  her)  and  streams  and  rivers  result.  The 
story  of  the  war  of  the  gods  and  Titans  becomes  merely  an  alle- 
gorical account  of  the  war  of  the  elements.  Some  of  the  ancient 
philosophers  saw  in  these  stories  of  gods  and  goddesses  only  a 
physical,  ethical,  religious  or  historical  explanation  of  the  uni- 
verse; Theogenes,  for  instance,  considered  Homer's  writings  to 
be  merely  a  physical  philosophy,  or  as  we  now  call  it — natural 
philosophy,  or  Physics. 

Eumerides  thought  that  there  was  nothing  supernatural,  and 
that  the  mythologies  were  merely  attempts  at  a  historical  expla- 
nation of  physical  facts.  The  early  Christians,  like  Augustine, 
rather  favored  this  view,  and  they  thought  that  Zeus,  Aphrodite, 
and  the  other  Greek  gods  and  goddesses  were  originally  real  per- 
sons, not  divine,  but  diabolical,  who  had  become  transformed  by 
tradition  into  deities. 

Porphyry  ascribed  to  the  myths  about  the  gods  a  meaning 
which  was  partly  moral  and  partly  deeply  theosophical ;  the  reli- 
gious elements  were  for  the  purpose  of  controlling  the  masses. 

This  was  also  Aristotle's  view,  who  considered  the  stories 
as  allegories  invented  by  statesmen  and  legislators,  "to  persuade 
the  many,  and  to  support  the  law." 

Plutarch,  in  an  essay  on  Superstition,  said  that  "ignorance 
about  the  gods  which  makes  the  obstinate  man  an  atheist  also  be- 
gets credulity  in  weak  and  pliant  minds.  The  atheist  fears  noth- 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP  333 

ing  because  he  believes  nothing;  the  superstitious  man  believes 
there  are  gods,  but  they  are  unfriendly  to  him.  A  man  who  fears 
the  gods  is  never  free  from  fear,  whatever  may  befall  him.  He 
extends  his  fear  beyond  his  death  and  believes  in  the  'gates  of 
hell,'  and  its  fires,  in  the  darkness,  the  ghosts,  the  infernal  judges," 
etc. 

The  Neo-Platonists  taught  that  God  and  matter  were  the 
same  thing;  they  believed  what  is  now  termed  " rationalism,"  a 
realism  amounting  to  materialistic  pantheism:  "Omnia  unum, 
qiiia,  quicquid  est,  est  Deus."  (All  things  are  one,  because,  what- 
ever is,  is  God.) 

Pantheism  taught  that  the  whole  universe  was  endowed  with 
and  pervaded  by  a  divine  but  immaterial  mind  which  manifests 
itself  in  the  plant  as  well  as  in  the  animal  and  man,  in  the  instinct 
of  the  bee  as  well  as  in  men.  On  the  death  of  any  living  organism, 
its  soul  did  not  perish  but  simply  reverted  to  the  all-pervading 
intelligence,  to  enter  into  new  organisms  as  needed. 

"It  is  not  possible  for  us  to  set  God  before  our  eyes,  or  to 
lay  hold  of  him  with  our  hands,  which  is  the  broadest  way  of  per- 
suasion that  leads  into  the  heart  of  man.  For  he  is  not  furnished 
with  a  human  head  on  his  body,  two  branches  do  not  sprout  from 
his  shoulders,  he  has  no  feet,  no  swift  knees,  no  hairy  parts  ;*  but 
he  is  only  a  sacred  and  unutterable  mind  flashing  through  the 
whole  world  with  rapid  thoughts."  (Parmenides,  born  515  B.C.) 

The  Pythagoreans  said  that  all  things  were  made  of  numbers ; 
numbers  are  the  true  realities  of  the  universe.  The  following  is 
an  account  of  some  of  their  theories  recorded  by  Aristotle : 

"But  amongst  these,  and  prior  to  them,  those  called  Pyth- 
agoreans, applying  themselves  to  the  study  of  the  mathematical 
sciences,  first  advanced  these  views ;  and  having  nurtured  therein 
they  considered  the  first  principles  of  these  to  be  the  first  prin- 
ciples of  all  entities.  But  since,  among  these,  numbers  by  nature 
are  the  first,  and  in  numbers  they  fancied  they  beheld  many  re- 
semblances for  entities  and  things  that  are  being  produced,  rather 
than  in  fire,  earth  and  water**;  because,  to  give  an  instance, 
such  a  particular  property  of  numbers  is  justice,  and  such,  soul 
and  mind ;  and  another  different  one  is  opportunity ;  and  it  is  the 
case,  so  to  speak,  in  like  manner  with  each  of  the  other  things. 

'Meaning,    he   has  no   genitals. 
**The  ancient  elements  of  material  things. 


334  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

"Moreover,  also  in  numbers  discerning  the  passive  conditions 
and  reasons  of  harmonies,  since  it  was  apparent  that,  indeed,  other 
things  in  their  nature  were  in  all  points  assimilated  unto  numbers, 
and  that  the  numbers  were  the  first  of  the  entire  of  nature,  hence 
they  supposed  the  elements  of  numbers  to  be  the  elements  of  all 
entities,  and  the  whole  heaven  to  be  an  harmony  and  number. 
Undoubtedly  do  these  appear  to  consider  number  to  be  a 
first  principle,  and  as  it  were,  a  material  cause  of  entities,  and  as 
both  their  passive  conditions  and  habits,  and  that  the  even  and 
the  odd  are  elements  of  number;  and  of  these,  that  the  one  is 
finite,  and  the  other  infinite,  and  that  unity,  doubtless,  is  composed 
of  both  of  these,  for  that  it  is  both  even  and  odd  and  that  number 
is  composed  of  unity,  and  that,  as  has  been  stated,  the  entire 
heaven  is  composed  of  numbers. 

"But  others  of  these  very  philosophers  affirm  that  first  prin- 
ciples are  ten  in  number,  denominated  in  accordance  with  the  fol- 
lowing co-ordinate  series,  namely:— 

Bound    Infinite.  Square Oblong. 

Unity Plurality.  Good    Bad. 

Best Motion.  Odd    Even.* 

Straight    Crooked.  Eight Left.* 

Light Darkness.  Male    Female.* ' ' 

As  demonstrated  above,  numbers  are  the  cause  of  the  exist- 
ence of  All  Things ;  numbers  are  as  the  Gods. 

Xenophanes  said  (about  550  B.C.)  :•  "There  is  one  God,  the 
greatest  among  gods  and  men,  neither  in  form  nor  thought  like 
unto  mortals.  He  sees  all  over,  thinks  all  over,  and  hears  all 
over.  But  without  toil  he  sways  all  things  by  the  thought  of  his 
mind.  And  he  abideth  ever  in  the  same  place,  moving  not  at  all ; 
nor  doth  it  befit  him  to  go  about,  now  hither,  now  thither.  But 
mortals  think  that  the  Gods  are  born  as  they  are,  and  have  percep- 
tion like  theirs,  and  voice  and  form. 

"Yes,  and  if  oxen  or  lions  had  hands  and  could  paint  with 
their  hands  and  produce  works  of  art  as  men  do,  horses  would 
paint  the  forms  of  the  Gods  like  horses,  and  oxen  like  oxen.  Each 
would  represent  them  with  bodies  according  to  the  form  of  each. 
So  the  Ethiopians  make  their  Gods  black  and  snubnosed;  the 
Thracians  give  theirs  red  hair  and  blue  eyes.  Homer  and  Hesiod 

*For  the  importance  of  these  series,  see  Gemetria,  p.  104  and  p.  194,  as  having  bearing  on  sex. 


SEX    AND   SEX    WORSHIP  335 

have  ascribed  to  the  Gods  all  things  that  are  a  shame  and  a  dis- 
grace among  men,  thefts  and  adulteries  and  deception  of  one  an- 
other. *  *  * 

"There  never  was  nor  will  be  a  man  who  has  clear  certainty 
as  to  what  I  say  about  the  Gods  and  about  all  things;  for  even 
if  he  does  chance  to  say  what  is  right,  yet  he  himself  does  not 
know  that  it  is  so.  But  all  are  free  to  guess. 

"There  are  guesses  something  like  the  truth.  The  Gods  have 
not  shown  forth  all  things  to  man  from  the  beginning,  but  by 
seeking  they  gradually  find  out  what  is  better." 

Protagoras  (about  500  B.C.)  said:  "Concerning  the  Gods,  I 
can  not  say  whether  they  exist  or  not. ' ' 

"VVe  have  previously  referred  to  Hesiod's  theories  of  religion; 
it  is  practically  a  history  of  sexual  relations  and  sexual  deeds  and 
valor  of  the  ancient  gods. 

The  helplessness  and  dependence  of  men  on  the  will  of  the 
gods  is  told  by  Hesiod  in  this  fable:  "Now  then  will  I  speak  a 
fable  to  kings,  wise  even  though  they  are.  Thus  the  hawk  ad- 
dressed the  nightingale  of  variegated  throat,  as  he  carried  her 
in  his  talons,  when  he  had  caught  her,  very  high  in  the  clouds. 

"She  then,  pierced  on  all  sides  by  his  crooked  talons,  was 
wailing  piteously,  whilst  he  victoriously  addressed  his  speech  to 
her: 

"  'Wretch,  wherefore  criest  thou?  'tis  a  much  stronger  that 
holds  thee.  Thou  wilt  go  that  way  by  which  I  may  lead  thee, 
songstress  though  thou  art:  and  my  supper,  if  I  choose,  I  shall 
make  or  let  go.  But  senseless  is  he  who  chooses  to  contend 
against  them  that  are  stronger,  and  he  is  robbed  of  victory  and 
suffers  griefs  in  addition  to  indignities.' 

"When  he  has  suffered,  the  senseless  man  learns  this.   * 
Whoso  giveth  fair  Judgment  to  strangers  and  to  citizens,  and 
does  not  overstep  aught  of  justice,  for  these  a  city  blooms.   *   *   * 

"For  them  bears  Earth  much  substance:  on  the  mountains 
the  oak  at  its  top  indeed  yields  acorns,*  and  midway  bees ;  *  *  * 
women  bear  children  like  unto  their  sires;  *  and  the  fer- 

tile field  yields  its  increase.  But  they,  to  whom  evil,  wrong  and 
hard  deeds  are  a  care,  to  them  wide-seeing  Jove,  the  son  of  Cronos, 
destines  punishment." 

•Before  Demeter  taught  the  Greeks  the  art  o£  agriculture,  they  lived  mainly  on  acorns. 


336  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

Thales  (about  585  B.C.)  was  said  to  be  the  first  person  who 
affirmed  "that  the  souls  of  men  were  immortal,"  and  he  was  the 
first  person  who  discovered  the  path  of  the  sun  *  *  *  and  who 
defined  its  magnitude  as  being  seven  hundred  and  twenty  times 
as  great  as  that  of  the  moon.  *  *  But  Aristotle  and  Hippias 
say  that  he  attributed  souls  also  to  lifeless  things,  forming  his 
conjectures  from  the  nature  of  the  magnet  and  of  amber.  * 

And  the  following  is  quoted  as  a  saying  of  his:  "God  is  the 
most  ancient  of  all  things,  for  he  had  no  birth:  *  *  *': 

Cicero  (born  105  B.C.)  said:  "Should  I  attempt  to  search  into 
antiquity  and  produce  from  thence  what  the  Greek  writers  have 
asserted,  it  would  appear  that  even  those  who  were  called  their 
principal  gods,  were  taken  from  among  men  up  into  heaven."  * 

"And  this  may  further  be  brought  as  an  irrefragable  argu- 
ment for  us  to  believe  that  there  are  gods, — that  there  never  was 
a  nation  so  barbarous,  nor  any  people  in  the  world  so  savage,  as 
to  be  without  some  notion  of  gods." 

Herodotus  (about  450  B.C.)  said:  "From  where  each  god 
comes,  whether  they  have  always  existed  and  what  their  forms 
may  be,  all  this  is  knoAvn,  so  to  say,  only  since  yesterday  and  the 
day  before  that.  For  Hesiod  and  Homer,  who  lived  not  more  than 
four  hundred  years  before  me,  invented  a  history  of  the  gods  for 
the  Hellenes,  and  gave  each  god  his  name  and  his  honors,  and  who 
designated  their  accomplishments  and  their  forms." 

Lucretius  was  a  Roman  writer  of  the  last  century  B.C.;  he 
wrote  largely  also  on  science.  He  is  celebrated  for  his  clearness 
as  a  thinker,  noted  for  his  bold  and  logical  statements  of  specula- 
tive theories,  and  his  application  of  them  to  the  interpretation  of 
human  life  and  of  nature.  All  moral  and  physical  facts  are  con- 
sidered by  him  in  their  relation  to  one  great  organic  system  or 
power,  which  takes  the  place  of  a  deity  and  which  he  calls  Natura 
daedala  rerum  (the  skilful  nature  of  things)  and  the  most  benefi- 
cent manifestations  of  which  he  symbolizes  and  almost  deifies  as 
"Alma  Venus"  (propitious  or  indulgent  love).  In  his  concep- 
tion of  nature  are  united  the  ideas  of  law  and  order,  of  ever- 
changing  life  and  the  dependence  upon  each  other  of  the  immensity 
of  the  universe,  individuality  and  all-pervading  subtlety  under 
which  the  universe  is  conceived  by  his  intelligence,  and  his  imag- 
ination. 

He  disclaims  a  belief  in  a  supernatural  government  of  the 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  337 

world  by  powers  in  the  nature  of  gods,  he  does  not  believe  in  a 
future  life,  but  the  main  object  is  to  controvert  the  popular  ideas 
of  the  Olympian  gods  and  to  combat  the  belief  in  the  horrors  of 
Hades. 

Pliny  the  Elder  (about  60  A.D.)  believed  in  a  religion  of  Hu- 
manity which  was  a  precursor  of  the  modern  religion  of  positivism 
or  of  Humanity  as  expounded  in  the  nineteenth  century  by  Comte. 
He  said :  ''Nature  and  nature's  work  are  one ;  and  to  suppose  there 
is  more  than  one  universe  is  to  believe  there  can  be  more  than  one 
nature,  which  is  madness  (furor} ;  if  there  is  a  god,  it  is  vain  to 
inquire  his  form  or  shape;  He  is  entirely  a  Being  of  feeling  and 
sentiment  and  intelligence  and  not  of  tangible  existence.  God  is 
what  Nature  is ;  God  can  not  do  what  Nature  can  not  do ;  He  can 
not  kill  himself,  nor  make  mortals  immortal;  nor  raise  the  dead 
to  life;  nor  cause  one  who  has  lived  not  to  have  lived  at  all,  or 
make  twice  ten  anything  but  twenty." 

He  saluted  Nature  as  the  parent  of  all  things:  "Salve,  par  ens 
re-rum  omnium  Natural"  (Hail,  Nature,  the  parent  of  all  things). 

"Homo  est  Creator  Dei!" 

Livy  tells  of  Numa  Pompilius,  that,  in  181  B.C.,  two  boxes  were 
found  buried  at  the  foot  of  the  Janiculum,  one  purporting  to  con- 
tain his  body,  and  one  purporting  to  contain  copies  of  his  writ- 
ings. The  first  was  empty;  the  other  contained  14  books  relat- 
ing to  philosophy  which  "being  found  to  have  a  tendency  to 
undermine  the  established  system  of  religion"  were  immediately 
burned  publicly. 

The  spirit  of  persecution  for  the  sake  of  a  difference  of 
opinion  is  old;  it  compelled  Socrates  to  drink  the  poisoned  cup, 
and  it  has  prevailed  in  an  especially  virulent  manner  during  the 
persecutions  of  the  early  Christians  under  Nero,  Caligula,  Cara- 
calla,  and  other  Roman  emperors,  as  well  as  under  the  Inquisition 
in  the  medieval  Christian  church. 

The  following  is  a  literal  translation  from  an  Encyclopedic 
History  of  the  World,  published  in  1740  to  1780: 

"In  the  year  1688  there  was  a  nobleman,  Casimirus  Linzynsky 
Podsedeck  Brzesky,  who  not  only  orally  denied  the  true  nature  of 
God  but  also  tried  to  maintain  such  opinions  in  his  writings,  and 
who  proved  thereby  that  he  was  a  public  atheist,  which  is  a  rare 


338  SEX  AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

occurrence,  since  secret  atheism  and  a  subtle  denial  of  God  is  un- 
fortunately much  practiced  in  this  world. 

''This  nobleman  was  arrested  at  Warshau  by  order  of  the 
Bishop,  because  there  was  found  among  other  horrible  blasphe- 
mies in  his  devilish  writings,  composed  in  the  hellish  sulphur  pool, 
the  following  axiom:  'Deus  non  est  creator  hominis,  sed  homo 
est  creator  Dei,  qui  Deum  sibi  finxit  ex  niliilo.'  (God  is  not  the 
creator  of  man,  but  man  is  the  creator  of  God,  who  made  a  God 
for  himself  out  of  nothing.) 

"Notwithstanding  this,  several  devilish  Poles,  also  claiming 
nobility,  tried  to  defend  the  evil-minded  man,  by  which  means  the 
trial  was  actually  delayed  until  the  next  year.  But  on  the  5th  day 
of  February,  1689,  he  was  first  tried  in  public  council,  then  deliv- 
ered to  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  under  the  bishop  of  Lieff- 
land,  deputed  for  the  trial,  who  declared  him  guilty  and  delivered 
him  to  the  high  court  of  the  realm.  Here  the  Lithuanian  bishop 
acted  as  accuser  and  submitted  especially  a  book  of  fifteen  sheets 
which  Brzesky  had  written  with  his  own  hand,  and  in  which  he 
had  diligently  collected  all  evidence  from  heathenish  and  other 
blasphemous  scribes  by  which  the  true  nature  of  God  is  denied, 
and  in  which  he  closed  each  chapter  with  the  final  sentence :  'Ergo 
non  est  Deus.'  (Therefore,  God  does  not  exist!)  And  he  did 
this  not  for  the  purpose  of  searching  for  the  truth,  as  was  proved 
by  this,  that  he  added: /We  atheists  believe  thus,  and  this  is  our 
conviction.'  We  omit  other  blasphemous  quotations. 

"The  accused  asked  for  an  advocate,  but  this  was  peremp- 
torily refused.  On  the  29th  of  the  month  Linzynsky's  accuser  and 
six  other  witnesses,  took  the  required  oath,  that  they  had  not 
brought  the  accused  to  this  trial  through  malice,  and  had  found  no 
other  of  his  writings  but  those  produced  in  court,  consequently 
had  withheld  nothing  that  might  serve  for  his  defence ;  whereupon 
Linzinsky  on  the  first  of  March  recanted  his  errors  in  church,  on 
which  occasion  the  condemned  man  lay  on  a  specially  constructed 
platform  ('chavot'  or  scaffold)  in  front  of  the  altar  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  whole  congregation.  After  the  sermon  the  bishop  sat 
down  before  him  on  a  chair  while  a  priest  read  to  him  a  revoca- 
tion and  retraction  of  his  hellish  errors,  which  he  repeated  word 
for  word,  amidst  many  tears.  When  this  was  concluded  the  bishop 
granted  him  absolution  for  his  sins  and  administered  a  moderate 
flagellation,  after  which  the  bishop  descended  from  the  platform, 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  339 

whilst  the  atheist  implored  the  mercy  of  God,  of  the  king,  and  of 
the  people. 

"On  the  18th  of  the  same  month  the  death  sentence  was  pro- 
nounced on  the  defendant  Linzynsky  by  the  Chief  Marshal,  to 
this  effect:  that  his  writings,  while  he  holds  them  in  his  hand, 
shall  be  burned  on  the  market  place,  after  which  he  shall  be  taken 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  city  and  be  burned  alive,  his  goods  to  be 
confiscated,  the  house  in  which  he  lived  to  be  torn  down  and  the 
place  whereon  it  stood  to  be  left  vacant  forever.  As  the  sentence 
was  being  read  the  Bishop  of  Rosen  and  the  Bishop  of  Lieff- 
land  approached  the  throne  of  the  king  and  asked  for  a  milder 
sentence,  whereupon  the  condemned  man  spoke,  while  he  fell  on 
his  knees,  and  amidst  many  tears,  asked  that  the  torture  of  having 
his  hand  burned  with  his  writings  held  in  them,  and  of  his  being 
burned  at  the  stake  be  changed  to  decapitation,  which  the  king 
graciously  granted.  The  sentence  was  thereupon  executed,  so 
that  the  condemned  man  held  his  writings  at  the  end  of  a  stick 
while  he  burned  them;  then  he  was  decapitated,  his  body  taken 
beyond  the  city  limits  and  there  burned;  the  ashes  were  loaded  in 
a  cannon  and  fired  in  the  direction  of  Tartary."* 

Julius  Caesar  Vanninus,  of  Taurisano,  Italy,  born  at  Naples, 
was  arrested  in  1619  at  Toulouse  for  having  uttered  "atheistic 
sentiments,"  and  was  condemned  to  be  burned  at  the  stake.  His 
offence  was  really  that  he  had  good-naturedly  ridiculed  the  pre- 
tensions of  some  astrologers  and  said  something  about  the  stars 
which  was  not  approved  by  the  ecclesiastical  authorities.  When 
he  was  about  to  be  executed,  his  tongue  was  torn  from  his  throat 
with  pincers  and  then  cut  off  and  burnt,  at  which,  as  the  editor 
rather  gleefully  remarks,  "he  roared  like  a  bull."  After  that  he 
was  burnt  at  the  stake. 

These  two  examples  show  a  peculiar  spirit  of  persecution,  or 
intolerance,  which  made  it  dangerous  to  argue  about  the  beliefs  of 
the  masses  or  even  of  individuals.  But  it  was  a  widely  spread 
spirit  of  intolerance  and  many  thousands  of  dissenters  from  the 
authorized  faith  were  burnt  at  the  stake.  Between  the  years  1600 
and  1670  the  inquisition  in  Spain  alone  burnt  alive  31,912  victims. 
Curiously  enough,  this  mode  of  execution  was  introduced  to  avoid 
spilling  human  blood  (Fig.  178). 

"Tartary  is  sometimes  used  as  a  synonym  for  hell. 


340 


SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


In  many  countries  the  victims  were  burnt  naked,  so  that  the 
blistering  of  the  skin  and  the  writhing  of  the  muscles  and  the 
contortions  of  the  limbs  would  be  more  impressive  as  a  deterrent 
for  the  onlookers.  Such  was  the  case  for  instance  in  Mexico. 
Also,  in  German  works  on  history  the  autos  de  fe  are  usually 
figured  with  the  victims  naked. 


Fig.  178. — Burning  of  John  Underbill,  on  Tower  Green;  Tower  of  London. 

i 

,*W       ! 


Fig.  179. — Burning  of  negro  at  Texarkana,  Texas,  February  20,  1892. 

In  Spain,  etc.,  the  victims  wore  a  single  garment,  the  "san 
benito,"  on  which  were  figured  devils,  etc. ;  when  the  fires  were  kin- 
dled this  garment  readily  burned  away  and  the  victim  was  prac- 
tically naked. 


SEX    AND   SEX    WORSHIP  341 

A  papal  bull,  in  1816,  put  an  end  to  torture  and  death  at  the 
stake  for  opinion's  sake. 

Burning  at  the  stake  has  been  resorted  to,  however,  in  our 
own  country  by  mobs,  mainly  for  the  punishment  of  negroes  who 
committed  rape  on  white  women  or  girls  (Fig.  179). 

Primitive  Beliefs 

There  are  but  few  people  who  have  no  theories  about  super- 
natural powers ;  most  people  have  some  ideas  of  this  kind  though 
they  may  be  hazy  and  lack  system;  but  they  may  have  some  in- 
definite dread  of  certain  unknown  influences  of  this  kind,  akin 
to  the  fear  experienced  by  many  when  they  are  in  the  dark  in  a 
strange  place. 

The  Anamese,  of  Cochin  China,  have  no  religion;  they  have 
certain  ceremonies  in  honor  of  their  ancestors,  but  these  do  not 
seem  to  be  of  the  nature  of  worship. 

The  Bechwana  had  no  traces  of  religion  or  of  belief  in  super- 
natural powers,  except  such  as  they  have  acquired  from  mission- 
aries, etc.,  since  their  first  contact  with  other  people. 

The  Bongo  people  have  no  idea  of  a  deity,  but  they  believe 
in  a  sort  of  "luck;"  they  go  naked,  but  wear  an  ornamental  girdle 
about  the  waist.  They  are  very  low  in  the  social  scale ;  marriage 
is  by  purchase,  but  a  man  may  not  buy  more  than  three  wives. 

The  ancient  Greek  writers  made  mention  of  some  troglodites, 
or  cave-dwellers  in  Africa,  that  they  were  rude  people  living  in 
caves  or  excavations  in  the  sides  of  hills,  that  they  owned  the 
women  in  common  (promiscuous  cohabitation),  were  cannibals  of 
the  stone  age,  had  no  religion  and  no  language  (meaning  no 
Greek?)  and  that  they  extended  even  to  Europe.  This  may  be  an 
early  reference  to  a  tribe  or  race  still  very  numerous  in  the  dense 
forests  of  Africa,  who  still  live  mainly  on  human  flesh  supplied 
through  wars,  or  by  Arab  traders  in  slaves,  in  exchange  for  gold, 
rubber  and  ivory. 

In  South  America,  the  Charruas  of  Uruguay  (in  1512,  as  re- 
ported by  the  missionary  Juan  Diaz  de  Solis)  had  no  trace  of 
any  religion;  their  habits  were  very  simple,  and  they  had  neither 
the  vices  nor  the  superstitions  of  the  other  South  American 
Indians. 

Likewise    the    Botocudos,    another   South  American  Indian 


342  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

tribe,  had  no  religion  (remember,  that  religion  must  be  accom- 
panied by  worship)  of  any  kind,  but  they  were  afraid  of  ghosts. 
They  believed  that  the  moon  was  the  Creator  of  the  world,  but 
they  did  not  worship  the  moon.  They  had  neither  a  trace  of  re- 
ligion nor  a  trace  of  clothing  of  any  kind.  Several  tribes  of  In- 
dians in  Brazil  are  cannibals,  and  go  entirely  naked ;  they  have  no 
religion  of  any  kind. 

The  Juangs  of  Bengal,  the  Fuegians  and  the  Andamanese 
are  said  to  have  no  idea  and  no  word  for  God,  no  idea  of  a  future 
life  and  no  religious  ceremonies  of  any  kind. 

The  Veddahs  are  an  aboriginal  tribe  in  Ceylon.  They  are 
a  diminutive  tribe,  the  men  about  5  feet  tall,  and  the  women  less. 
They  are  cave-dwellers,  clothe  themselves  with  a  few  leaves,  do 
not  use  fire  but  devour  their  food  uncooked  and  eat  whatever  they 
can  get,  vermin,  reptiles,  etc.  They  can  not  count,  nor  have  they 
any  idea  of  marking  the  time  of  day,  much  less  of  weeks  and  sea- 
sons ;  they  can  not  distinguish  colors  and  they  never  laugh.  They 
have  no  conceptions  of  any  supernatural  beings  or  gods,  but  they 
believe  that  there  are  certain  anthropomorphic  beings,  or  evil 
spirits  (who  may  however  be  real  men  of  neighboring  savage 
tribes)  and  they  hold  rude  dances  accompanied  by  shouts  to 
scare  away  these  beings. 

The  Hottentots  of  Africa  are  not  much  higher;  they  can 
count  only  to  20 ;  but  they  hold  their  women  in  very  high  esteem, 
the  men  even  swearing  by  their  sisters.  The  only  trace  of  reli- 
gion, if  so  it  can  be  called,  is  a  form  of  totemism;  the  women 
eat  apart  from  the  men,  but  this  is  on  account  of  a  peculiar  form 
of  tapu;  hares  and  rabbits  may  be  eaten  by  women,  but  not  by  the 
men,  while  the  blood  of  beasts  and  the  flesh  of  moles  can  be  eaten 
by  men  but  not  by  the  women.  Curiously  enough,  swine  are  tapu 
to  both  men  and  women  and  are  not  eaten  at  all. 

Religion  is  a  feeling,  either  of  fear,  or  of  gratitude,  which 
arises  in  the  minds  of  men  in  the  presence  of  unknown  influences 
which  either  harm  or  benefit  them ;  but  it  does  not  necessarily  fol- 
low that  this  feeling  is  a  religion,  although  it  disposes  to  religious 
sentiments.  It  is  only  when  man  begins  to  ascribe  volition  or 
thought  to  such  powers,  and  when  he  tries  to  propitiate  them  by 
offerings  or  worship,  or  to  influence  them  by  prayers,  that  it  be- 
comes religion. 

It  is  extremely  doubtful  whether  early  primitive  man  was 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  342 

even  as  far  advanced  as  the  Bechwana,  Bongo,  Charruas,  Boto- 
cudos,  Juangs,  Fuegians,  Esquimaux,  or  similar  tribes,  and  prim- 
itive man  may  have  continued  in  such  condition  for  untold  ages, 
hundreds  of  thousands  if  not  several  millions  of  years.  In  fact, 
man  must  have  made  considerable  advancement  before  he  had 
any  urgent  mental  disposition  to  speculate  beyond  his  most  im- 
mediate wants,  the  ability  to  satisfy  hunger  and  to  gratify  his 
sexual  desires.  But  when  he  felt  a  need  of  satisfying  a  desire  to 
understand  nature  about  him,  and  to  speculate  about  the  causes 
of  phenomena  about  him,  this  primitive  religious  desire  was  prob- 
ably an  indistinct  naturism,  or  an  awe  inspired  by  the  natural 
phenomena  conjectured  as  living  and  conscious  powers;  it  was 
but  natural  for  primitive  man  to  attribute  the  human  character- 
istics of  life,  action  and  thought,  and  especially  of  sex,  to  all  phe- 
nomena or  forces  of  nature,  thus  creating  in  his  own  mind  various 
gods  presiding  over  winds,  floods,  heat  of  summer,  frost  of  win- 
ter, etc. ;  these  creations  of  the  imagination  of  primitive  men  have 
been  called  departmental  gods,  which  must  have  antedated  by 
many  generations  any  higher  conceptions  of  deities. 

Possibly  one  of  the  earliest  ideas  of  the  supernatural  was 
the  fear  of  ghosts ;  when  the  savage  dreamt  of  seeing  a  departed 
dead  friend,  he  naturally  concluded  that  he  saw  his  friend  him- 
self in  ghost  form;  he  dreamed  of  seeing  him  with  his  weapons, 
clothes,  etc.,  therefore  he  knew  that  these  had  souls  or  ghosts 
also;  this  led  to  a  belief  in  animism,  a  belief  in  a  sort  of  souls 
inhabiting  everything,  and  fetichism  was  the  result.  Simple  ob- 
jects, such  as  sticks  and  stones,  feathers,  etc.,  were  supposed  to 
be  capable  of  exerting  magical  powers,  or  to  act  as  talismans,  and 
were  thought  to  be  able  to  compel  the  unknown  powers  of  nature, 
or  primitive  gods,  to  work  the  will  of  the  possessor  of  the  talis- 
mans. A  modified  belief  in  fetiches  survives  even  among  our- 
selves; for  lucky  coins,  buckeyes,  horse-shoes  or  swastika  stick- 
pins, amulets  and  charms,  medallions,  and  various  gems  as  birth- 
stones,  etc.,  are  valued  by  many. 

Bishop  Callaway  says  that  the  Bushmen  of  Africa  call  God 
Ikquum,  which  means  "Father  who  is  above."  On  the  other  hand, 
a  Bushman  said  that  his  tribe  worshipped  two  rocks  or  stones, 
one  male,  one  female.  They  pray  to  the  male  rock  for  success  in 
hunting;  the  female  rock  is  supposed  to  be  an  evil  spirit,  and  if 
they  are  unsuccessful  and  fail  to  secure  any  game,  they  beat  the 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

female  rock.  As  usual,  the  female  gets  the  worst  of  it!  These 
fetich  stones  of  the  African  " sacred  places"  are  often  meteorites, 
which  were  everywhere  regarded  with  superstitious  reverence  and 
awe  (Fig.  180). 

The  propitiation  of  ghosts  was  probably  the  basis  of  many 
early  religious  offerings,  among  the  lower  races. 

To  keep  the  ghost  of  the  departed  chief  contented  in  the  other 
world,  his  belongings  in  this  world  were  sent  there  with  him.  His 
wives,  horses  and  slaves  were  killed  and  buried  with  him,  or  in 
many  tribes,  were  buried  alive  in  his  grave. 

In  some  African  tribes  a  deep  and  large  grave  was  dug  into 


Fig.  180. — African  fetich  place;  a  tree  and  two  stones. 

which  the  chief's  wives  and  slaves  were  put,  with  their  ankles  and 
wrists  broken,  so  they  could  not  try  to  climb  out  of  the  pit;  the 
chief  was  laid  on  top  of  them  and  they  were  left  without  food  or 
drink,  but  guarded  so  that  none  might  escape,  until  all  were  dead 
when  the  grave  was  filled  up;  the  clothes,  ornaments,  weapons, 
etc.,  of  the  chief  were  burned  so  that  the  ghosts  of  these  things 
might  go  to  the  other  world  also.  Such  or  similar  were  the  first 
propitiatory  offerings  to  the  ghosts, — mention  of  it  is  found  in 
the  Rig-Vedas,  the  Zend-Avesta,  in  the  early  books  of  the  Jewish 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  345 

Bible  (the  Pentateuch)  as  well  as  in  the  writings  of  the  ancient 
Egyptians,  Greeks  and  Romans. 

Suttee,  in  India,  was  a  similar  practice.  It  is  not  a  part  of 
Brahmanism,  but  was  (or  is?)  a  survival  of  a  very  ancient  rite. 
On  the  death  of  a  husband  his  favorite  wife  voluntarily  went  on 
tho  funeral  pile  and  was  burned  with  his  body,  so  that  she  might 
serve  him  in  the  other  world.  The  word  means  "good  wife;"  the 
practice  is  now  forbidden  by  law,  but  there  is  reason  to  believe 
that  suttee  is  still  practiced  in  isolated  districts.  The  widow  usu- 
ally is  intoxicated  with  stupefying  and  poisonous  drinks,  so  that 
she  hardly  appreciates  what  she  is  doing,  and  shortly  before  she 
goes  to  the  funeral  pyre  the  priests  administer  a  big  dose  of 
opium,  so  that  it  is  possible  that  she  is  beyond  feeling  much  pain. 

Most  nations  in  Asia,  Africa  and  America  sacrificed  wives, 
slaves,  horses,  etc.,  on  the  graves  of  their  dead,  before  they  came 
in  contact  with  civilized  ideas. 

The  music  at  the  wakes  of  the  Irish  was  originally  meant  to 
scare  away  evil  spirits  which  might  lie  in  wait  to  take  the  soul  of 
the  departed. 

Among  some  North  American  Indians,  they  go  out  in  front 
of  the  dead  man's  tepee  and  sing,  shout  and  shoot  off  their  fire- 
arms for  a  similar  reason.  In  some  tribes  they  light  and  main- 
tain a  fire  for  four  days,  to  light  the  way  to  the  happy  hunting 
grounds. 

The  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans  placed  a  small  coin  in  the 
mouth  of  the  dead,  so  the  corpse  could  pay  his  ferriage  over  the 
Styx;  the  Irish  place  a  coin  in  the  dead  man's  hand — no  telling! 
He  might  need  it! 

Some  tribes  in  Guinea  throw  their  dead  into  the  sea,  so  as 
to  get  rid  of  the  ghosts ;  modern  Egyptians  turn  the  body  of  their 
dead  around  and  around  as  rapidly  as  possible  so  as  to  make  the 
soul  dizzy;  the  ghost  can  not  orient  itself  well,  then,  and  is  not 
likely  to  find  its  way  back ;  the  natives  of  Australia  tie  the  hands 
of  a  corpse  together  so  that  it  can  not  scratch  itself  out  of  the 
grave  to  haunt  them;  in  some  parts  of  Southeastern  Europe  a 
stake  is  driven  through  the  body  of  the  corpse  in  the  grave,  to 
prevent  it  coming  back  as  a  vampire  or  were-wolf ;  and  still  other 
tribes  move  their  encampment  after  a  funeral,  so  the  ghosts  can 
not  trace  them.  In  all  these  measures  we  see  a  fear  of  ghosts. 

The  worship  among  the  Greeks  of  the  Manes,  or  the  ghosts 


346  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

of  the  departed,  was  a  part  of  ancestor-worship,  which  is  a  wide- 
spread form  of  religion,  to  which  reference  has  already  been 
made;  in  it  there  is  little  fear  of  ghosts,  but  the  latter  are  sup- 
posed to  preside  over  and  to  influence  the  affairs  of  the  living. 
The  ghosts  became  beneficent  powers,  and  were  worshipped  ac- 
cordingly; they  were  not  feared  but  honored. 

It  is  a  peculiarity  of  the  human  mind  and  imagination  that 
it  can  not  originate  anything  entirely  new ;  for  instance,  there  are 
traditions  and  fables  about  dragons.  A  dragon  may  be  a  tradi- 
tion reaching  back  to  the  memory  of  man  in  early  times;  the 
Piasa  bird  which  was  figured  on  Chautauqua  Bluff  in  Illinois,  was 
possibly  due  to  the  memory  and  experience  of  early  mankind 
transmitted  to  the  moundbuilders  who  probably  painted  this  bird, 
from  the  times  when  pterodactyls  flew  about,  a  terror  and  men- 
ace to  primitive  man.  The  dragons  of  art  are  composite  crea- 
tures, with  heads  of  serpents  or  eagles,  the  wings  of  birds,  the 
claws  of  carnivora,  etc.,  creatures  such  as  never  existed  except  in 
the  imagination  of  man;  yet  every  part  of  the  dragon  was  like 
something  that  man  had  seen,  otherwise  he  could  not  have  evolved 
such  a  creature  from  his  imagination. 

This  applies  to  religion  as  well  as  to  art.  Whatever  primi- 
tive man  imagined  or  fabled  about  gods  and  supernatural  beings, 
was  based  on  something  of  which  he  had  knowledge.  Man  could 
and  did  imagine  gods  as  spiritual  powers,  of  course ;  but  he  gave 
no  shape  to  such  gods.  When  it  became  necessary  to  represent 
them,  it  was  in  animal  forms,  or  anthropomorphic. 

Aristotle  denied  that  the  gods  had  ethical  virtue,  or  that 
they  concerned  themselves  about  the  world  or  its  inhabitants; 
Spinoza  says  the  idea  of  God  being  an  intelligent  being,  or  an 
Intelligence,  who  is  free  to  act  or  to  remain  passive,  or  as  ruling 
the  world,  is  too  anthropomorphic  to  be  true.  The  general  sub- 
stitution of  the  term  " Supreme  Being"  for  "God"  means  noth- 
ing ;  it  does  not  change  the  underlying  idea  of  Some  One  who  rules 
over  us,  which  idea  is  rejected  by  most  philosophers,  though  ac- 
cepted by  the  masses.  Many  philosophers  accept  Herbert  Spen- 
cer's term  for  all  supernaturalism ;  they  call  it  the  "Unknowable." 

But  in  the  main  the  axiom  proclaimed  by  Linzynski  (p.  337) 
is  correct:  "Homo  est  Creator  Dei."  Man  necessarily  imagined 
gods  in  shapes  with  which  he  was  familiar,  and  whether  he  fig- 
ured them  as  men  or  as  beasts  or  as  combinations  of  both,  they 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP  347 

contained  no  unknown  elements.  I  show  here  the  Assyrian  con- 
ception oi'  Asshur,  the  chief  of  the  gods,  as  an  example  of  primi- 
tive imagination  (Fig.  181). 

Even  the  Bible  taught  anthropomorphic  ideas,  for  the  dec- 
laration, "God  created  man  in  his  own  image,"  necessarily  im- 
plies a  reversed  statement  that  God  is  like  man,  for  if  man  is  made 
in  the  image  of  God  then  God  must  have  the  shape  of  man.  The 
Bible  relates  a  number  of  occasions  when  God  appeared  in  human 
shape  to  some  of  the  Old  Testament  heroes  or  patriarchs. 

The  original  religion,  naturism  or  fetichism,  or  the  adoration 
of  natural  phenomena  as  living  powers,  must  have  developed  in 
the  course  of  long  ages  into  anthropomorphic  theism  or  poly- 
theism; and  among  these  many  deities  one  may  have  become  more 


Fig.  181. — The  Assyrian  god  Asshur;  with  the  pine-cone  symbol  of  the  lingam  in  his 

right   hand. 

and  more  important,  and  have  come  to  be  worshipped  as  the  main 
god  or  as  the  only  god. 

Just  as  man  was  led  to  consider  the  gods  as  like  unto  himself, 
he  could  not  imagine  the  gods  as  living  undor  other  conditions  or 
relationships  than  himself.  And  as  primitive  man  probably  es- 
teemed his  sexual  appetites  as  the  most  important  to  himself,  with 
the  possible  exception  of  his  appetite  for  food,  so  he  imagined  the 
gods  and  goddesses  to  live  in  similar  relationships  as  men.  And 
as  they  could  not  conceive  any  higher  social  or  political  organi- 
zation than  they  had  themselves,  they  imagined  the  gods  to  live 


348  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

in  hordes,  or  organized  tribes,  or  as  kings  among  their  people, 
just  as  men  lived. 

No  nation  created  a  single  or  only  god  in  their  thoughts,  but 
they  peopled  the  supernatural  world  with  endless  numbers  of  su- 
pernatural beings,  fauns,  nymphs,  sileni,  demons,  dragons,  angels, 
fairies,  elves,  kobolds,  etc.,  who  were  the  subjects  or  formed  the 
society  or  community  in  which  the  gods  lived  and  ruled. 

In  the  primitive  worships  the  gods  were  the  forces  of  nature, 
and  were  conceived  as  demons,  spirits,  or  as  animal  or  men-like 
beings.  The  gods  were  not  the  natural  phenomena  themselves, 
but  the  lords  ruling  over  and  producing  these  phenomena;  thus, 
in  India,  Rudra  was  not  the  lightning,  but  the  god  of  lightning,  the 
god  who  produced  the  lightning ;  in  Greece,  Jupiter  cast  his  light- 
ning shafts  and  thunderbolts ;  he  produced  the  lightning  but  light- 
ning was  not  the  god.  Among  the  Teutons  Wodan  was  the  chief 
god,  whose  son  was  Donar  (Donner),  the  lightning  god,  but  light- 
ning and  thunder  was  an  effect,  not  a  god. 

When  we  come  to  consider  the  phallus,  the  male  organs  of 
generation,  and  the  yoni,  or  vulva,  the  female  sexual  organs,  as 
symbols  of  religion  we  want  to  bear  this  distinction  well  in  mind. 
These  organs  were  not  the  gods,  they  were  not  worshipped,  but 
they  were  the  symbols  of  the  powers  or  gods  who  manifested  them- 
selves through  these  organs,  and  the  symbols  became  sacred  by 
the  reflected  godlike  attributes  they  represented. 

Idols  and  Images 

Idols  are  figures  representing  the  gods  and  are  worshipped 
in  their  stead.  By  the  ignorant  and  superstitious  masses,  these 
images  or  idols  are  regarded  as  the  gods  themselves,  but  by  those 
capable  of  doing  some  thinking,  they  are  regarded  merely  as  vis- 
ible objects  or  symbols  intended  to  call  to  mind  the  ideal  or  ab- 
stract powers  they  represent.  Of  course  these  symbols  may  be 
looked  upon  with  gross  or  idealized  eyes,  just  as  the  nude  in  art 
may  call  up  salacious  or  pure  thoughts. 

It  is  in  regard  to  Pagan  idols,  just  as  it  is  with  our  modern 
religions ;  the  figures  of  madonnas,  saints,  etc.,  are  not  idols,  even 
though  some  of  the  more  ignorant  worshippers  attach  miraculous 
attributes  to  such  statues,  paintings,  medallions,  etc.,  while  to  the 
thinking  devotees  they  merely  serve  to  remind  of  the  ideals  these 
figures  make  concrete  for  better  understanding. 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


349 


Among  Pagans,  the  idol  itself  is  often  the  object  of  worship, 
but  not  necessarily  always;  and  among  highly  educated  Pagans, 
as  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  the  statues  of  their  gods  and 
goddesses  were  not  idols  but  merely  images  or  symbols  of  the 
deities. 

Among  barbarian  nations,  it  was,  and  is,  a  custom  to  carry 
the  gods  (or  idols)  into  battle,  in  the  belief  that  they  would  aid 
their  people  in  the  fight.  There  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  efficacy  of 
this  close  partnership  of  god  and  his  people  (meaning  here  not  the 
Israelites,  but  any  believers  in  the  particular  idols  they  had  with 
them)  because  it  naturally  stimulated  the  valor  of  the  fighting 
men. 


Fig.  182. — Wooden  idols  of  tlie  Fiji  Islanders. 

In  Arabia  it  is  the  custom  for  a  warlike  force  to  take  with 
them  some  courageous  maiden  of  the  tribe,  who  is  mounted  on  a 
black,  or  blackened  camel;  she  loudly  sings  about  the  prowess  of 
her  tribes-people  and  of  the  aid  that  Allah  is  to  them,  and  deri- 
sively about  the  cowardice  and  other  contemptible  traits  of  their 
enemies;  her  own  people  being  incited  to  greater  deeds  of  valor 
and  the  enemies  being  depressed  by  her  insults. 

A  similar  condition  prevailed  when  Joan  of  Arc  led  the 
French  in  battle  in  the  15th  Century. 

We  have  already  learned  that  in  Madagascar  when  the  men 
go  to  war  the  women  at  home  dance  war  dances;  the  knowledge 
that  the  women  are  dancing,  urges  the  warriors  to  added  bravery. 


350  SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

In  such  cases  there  is  a  distinct  sexual  stimulus  exerted  by  think- 
ing of  their  women  while  fighting. 

Among  the  Germans  the  close  partnership  of  God  and  the 
Kaiser  is  practically  an  article  of  faith  and  is  a  powerful  influ- 
ence in  encouraging  the  troops.  Whether  they  believe  this  to  be 
the  God  of  the  Bible  or  the  old  German  war  god  Odin  or  Wodan 
is  immaterial;  the  stimulating  effect  on  the  courage  of  the  igno- 
rant and  superstitious  among  the  Germans  in  battle  is  marked. 

Idols  or  images  of  gods  were  used  in  very  ancient  times. 
Among  the  Israelites  of  old  idolatry  was  forbidden,  as  appears 
from  numerous  passages  in  the  Bible,  of  which  I  quote  but  one; 
Exod.  xx,  4:  "Thou  shalt  not  make  unto  thee  any  graven  images 
or  any  likeness  of  any  thing  that  is  in  heaven  above,  or  that  is  in 
the  earth  beneath,  or  that  is  in  the  water  under  the  earth;  thou 
shalt  not  bow  down  thyself  to  them  nor  serve  them." 


Fig.  183. — Aztec  idols;  the  first  one  is  male,  the  second  female;  the  third  holds  a  cornu- 
copia but  the  sexual  parts  are  not  shown. 

Graven  images  were  forbidden,  which  discouraged  sculpture 
and  art  of  every  kind ;  molten  images  are  forbidden  in  other  pas- 
sages, by  which  were  meant  figures  cast  in  moulds ;  for  instance, 
while  Moses  went  up  into  the  mountains  to  receive  the  tablets  of 
the  law,  the  Israelites  demanded  that  Aaron,  the  High  Priest, 
should  make  some  visible  image  of  God,  which  he  did  by  casting 
an  image  of  an  Apis  bull  (a  golden  calf)  made  from  the  orna- 
ments offered  by  the  people  for  that  purpose;  the  form  of  the 
image  was  in  accord  with  the  Egyptian  religion  under  which  they 
had  lived  so  long.  The  real  gist  of  the  commandment,  and  the 
reason  for  its  enactment  \vas  of  course  in  the  last  sentence,  but 
the  Jews  construed  it  to  mean  that  such  images  should  not  be 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


351 


made.  That  this  was  not  the  intention,  follows  from  reading 
Num.  xxi,  8:  "And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Make  tliee  a  fiery 
serpent  and  set  it  upon  a  pole ;  and  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that  every 
one  that  is  bitten,  when  he  looketh  upon  it,  shall  live."  If  the 
commandment  meant  to  prohibit  the  making  of  an  image,  God 
would  not  have  commanded  Moses  to  make  one  (Fig.  184).  The 
same  is  true  of  the  figures  of  cherubims  God  directed  Moses  to 
make  and  place  on  the  ark  of  the  covenant. 

The  Teraphim  were  Jewish  household  gods,  similar  to  the 
Roman  Penates;  they  were  also  called  "images."  Perhaps  these 
were  some  of  the  "strange  gods"  referred  to  in  the  Bible. 

During  the  Babylonian  captivity  the  Jews  became  acquainted 
with  the  profuse  ornamentation  of  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  tem- 


Fig.  184. — Serpent  erected  by  Mosea  in  the  desert.    From  a  copperplate  of  1740. 

pies  and  imitated  it  occasionally  themselves,  but  after  the  captiv- 
ity, when  they  had  returned  to  their  old  homes,  the  prophets  be- 
came very  active  in  denouncing  the  making  of  images  and  the  wor- 
ship thereof,  carrying  the  above  commandment  to  the  extreme, 
construing  it  to  forbid  all  art,  even  of  architectural  sculptural 
ornamentations. 

This  aversion  to  the  imitative  arts,  at  least  as  far  as  it  is 
applied  to  images  of  living  beings,  was  adopted  from  the  Jews 
by  Mohammed,  to  the  extent  that  artists  were  not  even  permitted 
to  represent  the  human  features  for  purposes  of  portraiture. 
Statues  or  paintings  of  the  human  form  being  forbidden  by  the 
Koran,  could  not  do  away,  however,  with  the  appreciation  of 
human  beauty,  but  it  could  be  indulged  in  only  by  having  pretty 


352 


SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


girl  slaves  or  odalisques,  whose  main  duty  it  Avas  to  go  about 
naked  or  very  lightly  clad  in  the  homes  of  the  wealthy  Moham- 
medans; these  slaves  were  mainly  obtained  from  Georgia  or  Cir- 
cassia,  which  produced  and  still  produce  the  most  beautiful 
women.  These  slaves  did  not  do  much  work,  but  entertained  with 
music,  songs,  story-telling  or  dancing,  or  by  serving  refreshments ; 
they  were  themselves  waited  on  and  guarded  by  Nubian  slaves  or 
eunuchs,  by  way  of  contrast  or  foil,  the  value  of  which  was  already 
understood  in  ancient  Egypt. 

In  ancient  times  the  Germans  had  no  idols  to  represent  their 
deities;  in  fact,  they  did  not  even  build  temples.    Nor  were  idols 


Fig.  185. — A  menhir  or  stone  pillar  in  Japan. 

or  images  extensively  worshipped  in  ancient  Asia  Minor,  but  the 
deities  were  symbolized  by  natural  objects,  such  as  serpents,  trees, 
stones,  etc. ;  or  no  images  or  symbols  of  any  kind  were  used.  For 
example,  when  the  Greeks  first  settled  near  the  northern  shores  of 
the  Black  Sea,  in  Eussia  of  today,  about  800  B.C.,  they  met  there  a 
people  whom  they  called  the  Scythians.  Hippocrates  and  He- 
rodotus both  tell  us  about  them,  but  the  only  thing  we  are  inter- 
ested in  is  their  gods.  Their  highest  deity  was  feminine — Tabiti — 
the  goddess  of  the  hearth  or  family.  She  was  probably  the  same 
goddess  as  the  later  Goddess  Vesta  of  Rome,  the  goddess  of  the 
domestic  fire  and  the  hearth. 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP 


333 


To  primitive  people  making  a  fire  is  a  slow  process,  and  a  fire 
is  not  allowed  to  go  out.  The  central  lire  in  a  village  was  a  sacred 
symbol  of  the  hearth,  and  to  keep  up  this  fire  was  the  duty  of  the 
women,  or  in  some  cases,  of  special  priestesses  delegated  for  that 
duty ;  in  Rome,  for  example,  the  Vestal  Virgins  had  charge  of  the 
sacred  fire.  The  hearth  was  generally  esteemed  as  an  altar  sa- 
cred to  home  and  the  household,  hence  the  goddess  of  the  hearth 
was  an  important  goddess. 

Then  after  Tabiti  came  a  god  of  heaven;  next,  his  wife,  the 
goddess  of  earth;  a  sungod  or  male  god  and  a  goddess  of  fecun- 
dity or  of  fruitfulness,  the  two  accounting  for  the  productivity  of 
family,  fields  and  flocks;  and  two  gods  called  by  Greek  names, 
Heracles  and  Ares.  These  two  were  not  peculiarly  Scythian,  but 
were  common  to  all  Iranians,  or  the  inhabitants  of  Iran  or  what 


Fig.  186. — The  Stone  Doctors  of  Montcountur ;  each  figure  represents  a  different  saint, 
who,  on  being  invoked,  is  supposed  to  have  power  to  cure  some  particular  disease. 

is  now  Persia,  Beluchistan,  and  from  Kurdistan  to  Afghanistan. 
These  deities  were  purely  ideal,  no  shape  being  ascribed  to  them, 
and  they  were  not  represented  by  images  or  symbols  of  any  kind, 
with  the  sole  exception  of  Ares  who  had  as  his  altar  a  huge  heap 
of  brushwood  and  as  his  symbol  a  sword ;  to  Ares  were  made  of- 
ferings of  sheep  and  oxen,  and  also  every  hundredth  captive  taken 
in  war. 

The  habits  and  governments  of  the  Scythians  were  cruel,  des- 
potic and  bloodthirsty,  yet  their  ideas  about  their  gods  with  the 
exception  of  Ares,  were  far  more  ethical  than  was  usual  in  those 
early  days.  "We  must  bear  in  mind  that  even  the  early  Jews  in- 
dulged in  bloody  sacrifices,  including  human  offerings. 

Some  of  the  Iranian  gods  became  heroes  and  eventually  gods 


354  SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

among  the  Greeks  and  Romans ;  Heracles  became  Hercules,  Tabiti 
became  Vesta,  etc. 

In  Greece,  in  the  archaic  stage  of  their  art,  undraped  figures 
were  practically  unknown,  but  as  the  skill  of  the  artists  increased, 
they  ventured  to  make  their  gods  and  goddesses  nude,  as  they 
themselves  often  went  about.  After  the  stage  of  worshipping 
stones  or  simple  pillars  as  images  of  their  gods,  came  a  period 
representing  the  body  as  a  pillar,  with  the  head  more  or  less  real- 
istic, and  on  the  front  either  a  penis  or  a  vulva  to  designate  a 
distinction  of  sex. 


Fig.  187. — "The  Rock  of  Ages,"  a  modern  statue. 

The  Bible  speaks  of  such  pillars  in  various  terms — heap  of 
witness,  stone  of  help,  stone  of  Israel,  rock  of  our  salvation,  high 
tower;  David  said  "my  rock"  and  we  say  "Rock  of  Ages"  (Fig. 
187). 

Pan,  a  Greek  god,  was  worshipped  mainly  in  Arcadia.  He 
was  the  herdsmen's  god,  and  the  giver  of  increase  in  flocks.  He 
was  a  god  of  music,  dance,  and  song,  and  he  was  fond  of  spending 
his  time  in  chasing,  dancing  and  sporting  with  the  mountain 
nymphs.  There  are  different  versions  as  to  his  parentage;  his 
father  was  variously  said  to  be  Zeus,  or  Hermes,  or  Apollo,  or 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


355 


Odysseus,  or  quite  a  number  of  others;  his  mother  was  Oenoe, 
Callisto,  or  Penelope.  When  the  latter  is  named  as  his  mother, 
he  had  no  individual  father,  but  his  paternal  ancestors  were  said 
to  be  all  the  suitors  of  Penelope.  He  was  represented  in  the 
fields  as  a  pillar  with  a  brutish  head  and  with  a  phallus  on  the 
front  of  the  pillar ;  at  least  this  was  a  much  more  usual  form  than 
some  other  figures  which  were  half  human  and  half  goat,  like  the 
satyrs  (Fig.  188).  As  with  all  the  representations  of  deities,  the 
older  forms,  before  art  had  advanced  far  enough  to  produce  more 


Fig.  18S. — Worship  of  Pan,  who  is  repre-      Fig.  189.— Young  girl  confessing  her  love 
sen  ted  as  a  pillar.  affairs  to  Venus. 

perfect  forms,  were  of  this  primitive  and  crude  type;  and  as  art 
developed,  the  forms  of  the  deities  became  more  beautiful. 

Pan  had  a  very  loud,  coarse  voice ;  when  he  laughed  or  called 
or  shouted,  men  were  seized  with  a  "pan-ic;"  his  name  "Pan"  is 
said  to  be  from  his  many  fathers,  "all"  the  suitors  of  Penelope. 

The  earliest  figures  of  Venus  were  similar  pillars,  but  with  a 
beautiful  feminine  head  and  feminine  parts  in  front  (Fig.  189). 

In  Great  Britain  many  stones  were  erected  by  the  ancient 
Druids.  Some  of  these  were  supposed  to  be  male,  others  female. 
In  Cornwall,  for  instance,  there  are  some  rude  stone  monuments 
called  the  Nine  Maidens  and  near  them  is  a  single  stone  called  the 
Old  Man. 


356  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

The  most  celebrated  stone  monument  of  this  kind  is  Stone- 
henge,  which,  according  to  Stukely,  was  the  cathedral  of  the  Arch 
Druid  of  all  Britain.  This  temple  was  originally  built  in  the  form 
of  a  circle  of  arches,  consisting  of  two  upright  stones  with  another 
laid  across  the  top,  making  a  circle  (feminine)  of  arches  (also 
feminine)  surrounding  some  gigantic  monoliths  (masculine). 
Until  quite  recently  this  Druidic  monument  was  private  property, 
but  it  was  recently  presented  to  the  British  government,  who 
will  take  measures  to  preserve  this  celebrated  ruin  for  all  time. 

At  Chulpas,  in  Peru,  is  a  stone  circle  similar  to  Stonehenge. 

The  round  towers  of  Ireland  were  symbols  of  the  erect  lin- 
gam;  the  round  Tower  of  Kildarn,  Ireland,  is  130  feet  high. 

In  Egypt,  in  the  city  of  On  (the  right  testicle)  was  a  temple 
with  a  red  granite  monolith,  still  standing,  70  feet  high,  a  symbol 
of  the  sun  or  the  (male)  creator. 

In  front  of  many  Egyptian  temples  were  great  monoliths, 
often  in  couples,  one  male  and  one  female.  "Cleopatra's  needles," 
one  of  which  is  now  in  Home,  the  other  in  the  city  of  New  York, 
wrere  such  a  pair  of  phallic  pillars. 

So  also  in  Asia  Minor,  among  the  Phoenicians,  Philistines  and 
other  neighbors  of  the  Jews,  the  gods  were  symbolized  as  pillars, 
or  trees,  etc. ;  Baal,  for  instance,  was  represented  as  a  pillar  of 
stone,  and  the  cromlechs,  or  dolmens,  were  stones  of  this  kind, 
but  marked  also  cemetery  locations,  as  it  appears  that  burials 
were  preferably  done  in  holy  ground,  or  in  "God's  Acre,"  even 
in  very  early  times.  Dolmens  and  cromlechs  are  found  through- 
out Asia,  for  instance,  in  Syria,  and  are  generally  considered 
proof  of  very  early  occupancy  of  a  country  by  settled  inhabitants ; 
they  were  the  earliest  symbols  having  religious  meaning.  They 
were  rude  images  of  the  phallus.  Asherah,  the  stem  of  a  tree,  was 
a  symbol  for  Ashtoreth,  the  Accadian  Venus. 

More  rarely  animals  became  symbols  for  certain  deities,  with- 
out, however,  being  themselves  considered  deities.  Thus,  in  Greece, 
the  owl  was  a  symbol  of  Pallas  Athena  (Minerva) ;  it  is  often 
called  the  "bird  of  wisdom."  In  Egypt,  the  vulture  was  the  sym- 
bol of  Suben,  the  "mother  goddess"  of  the  Egyptians;  it  was  also 
the  symbol  for  "maternity;"  but  neither  the  owl  nor  the  vulture 
was  considered  to  be  in  itself  a  deity. 

In  very  early,  or  Aryan  times,  the  deities  of  India  were  ideal 
deities,  not  represented  by  idols  or  pillars.  They  were  of  com- 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  357 

paratively  high  ethical  value,  but  their  worhsip  became  degraded 
to  a  crude  and  coarse  idol  worship  which  still  prevails,  and  which 
abounds  in  plain  and  covert  symbolism  for  the  penis  and  vulva. 

The  Hindus  represent  Siva  and  his  Sakti,  or  consort,  by 
coarse  phallic  and  yonic  symbols,  often  plain  or  coarse  representa- 
tions of  the  male  and  female  sexual  parts. 

India  is  said  to  have  about  three  hundred  millions  of  deities, 
many  of  which  are  represented  in  idols ;  a  peculiar  feature  of  these 
idols  is  that  many  have  four  or  six  or  more  arms,  to  indicate  the 
greater  power  of  the  gods;  this  idea  is,  however,  very  ancient, 
being  part  of  the  Asiatic  folklore  from  which  the  Greeks  took 
their  ideas  of  the  "Hundred-Handers"  in  Homeric  times.  Prob- 
ably there  are  more  idols  in  India  than  in  all  the  balance  of  the 
world  together;  but  this  great  profusion  of  idols  is  of  compara- 
tively recent  date— of  post-Buddhistic  times. 

The  Sivayites  or  worshippers  of  Siva  (also  called  Lingayats 
or  Lingacitas)  carry  about  on  their  persons  amulets  in  the  shape 
of  a  phallus,  which  is  the  sacred  symbol  of  Siva;  it  is  used  in 
India  in  a  similar  manner  as  the  cross  with  us. 

Idolatry  also  prevails  extensively  in  Africa  and  the  Pacific 
Islands,  the  images  often  being  grotesquely  ugly.  In  ancient  Aztec 
religions  also,  idols  were  worshipped. 

"When  idols  or  images  were  introduced  into  the  temples  of 
Greece  and  Rome,  this  led  to  the  development  of  the  noblest  form 
of  imitative  art.  The  Homeric  deities  were  powerful  and  very 
anthropomorphic  beings,  capable  of  pain  and  pleasure,  able  to 
assume  any  form  they  wished,  as  when  Jupiter  changed  himself 
to  a  swan  to  seduce  Leda,  to  a  bull  to  rape  Europa,  or  to  a  shower 
of  rain  to  impregnate  Danae.  The  Greek  gods  could  have  sexual 
connection  (often  by  rape)  or  intermarry  with  mortal  women. 
In  the  main  the  Romans  had  the  same  deities  but  more  spiritual- 
ized ;  that  is,  the  Roman  deities  were  not  as  concupiscent  and  de- 
praved sexually  as  the  gods  of  Greece.  The  gods  and  goddesses 
of  Rome  were  almost  pure  abstractions,  and  there  were  no  stories 
about  their  marriages,  amours,  etc.,  until  after  Greek  influence 
began  to  exert  itself  in  Rome. 

The  Greeks  were  very  sunny  in  disposition,  and  great  admir- 
ers, in  a  noble  way,  of  human  beauty.  Their  religion  was  one  of 
cheerful  influence,  and  as  they  conceived  their  gods  and  goddesses 
as  men  and  women,  but  of  a  most  perfect  type,  the  Greek  artists 


358  SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

made  every  effort  to  represent  their  divinities  in  the  most  perfect 
and  beautiful  human  forms,  but  also  with  the  sexual  desires  and 
failings  of  men  and  women. 

Greek  art  became  the  best  art,  and  what  is  good  in  modern 
art,  we  owe  largely  to  the  influence  of  the  Greek  artists ;  our  art- 
ists choose  subjects  for  representation  in  sculpture  and  painting 
from  the  mythology  of  the  Greeks. 

In  modern  Christian  religions,  the  two  branches  of  the  Cath- 
olic church,  the  Eoman  and  the  Greek,  permit  the  use  of  images  in 
their  church  services ;  these  are  not  to  be  considered  as  idols,  any 
more  than  the  ancient  Greek  figures  of  gods  and  goddesses. 

At  the  Council  of  Trent,  A.D.  1545-63,  the  church  of  Borne, 
after  much  debate  and  many  expressions  of  differences  of  opinion, 
finally  formulated  the  doctrine  regarding  images,  which  is  held 
by  the  church  today;  the  images  of  Christ,  the  Virgin  Mary  and 
of  the  Saints  may  be  placed  in  the  churches  and  due  honor  be  paid 
to  them,  by  kissing,  genuflexions,  prostrations,  etc.;  but  prayers 
before  these  images  are  not  supposed  to  be  addressed  to  the  im- 
ages, but  to  the  higher  ideal  personalities  represented  by  them. 

In  the  Greek  Catholic  church  the  sacred  images,  so-called 
"Ikons,"  are  made  in  stiff  archaic  style,  to  avoid  any  purely  hu- 
man effect  that  a  truthful  representation  of  the  body  might  engen- 
der. Nude,  or  incompletely  or  only  partially  draped  representa- 
tions of  the  human  figure  are  forbidden,  and  only  "half-lengths" 
(from  the  waist  up)  are  permitted  "ut  onmis  stultae  cogitationis 
occasio  tollatur"  (that  every  opportunity  for  foolish  thought  may 
be  removed).  No  representation  of  God  or  any  member  of  the 
Trinity  is  attempted,  and  therefore  the  crucifix,  which  is  so  im- 
portant a  symbol  in  the  Roman  branch  of  the  Catholic  church,  is 
not  used  in  the  Greek  church;  the  nudity  of  the  crucified  Christ 
which  has  no  injurious  influence  on  the  Western  branch,  would 
scandalize  the  membership  of  the  Eastern  branch  of  the  Catholic 
faith. 

In  the  Roman  branch  of  the  Catholic  church  the  crucifix  be- 
came a  very  sacred  symbol.  The  body  of  Christ  on  the  cross  is 
nearly  naked. 

The  cross  is  figured  in  various  shapes:  The  St.  Anthony 
cross  is  the  same  as  the  tau  cross,  which  was  probably  the  actual 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


35!) 


shape  of  the  cross  on  which  Jesus  died  (Fig.  190).  The  Latin 
cross  is  the  form  of  the  cross  most  commonly  seen  in  modern 
Christian  art;  the  groundplans  of  many  churches  and  cathedrals 
are  of  this  shape.  The  St.  Andrew's  cross,  or  crux  decussata,  is 
so  called  because  St.  Andrew  was  supposed  to  have  been  crucified 
on  a  cross  of  this  shape.  Plato  used  the  cross  of  this  shape.  In 
former  days  it  was  used  to  tie  criminals  who  were  sentenced  to  be 
whipped.  The  Greek  cross  has  four  even  limbs;  this  is  the  shape 
of  the  Red  Cross  of  civilized  nations.  The  Maltese  cross  is  used 
in  church  and  secret  society  regalia  and  ritual ;  probably  first  used 
by  the  Crusaders.  The  Catholic  Priest's  cross  is  a  Latin  cross 
with  one  cross-bar;  the  Cardinal's  cross  has  two  cross-bars  and 


t  **?<!> 


Fig.  190. — Upper  row,  tau-cross,  Latin          Fig.  191. — Marks    on    ancient    pottery, 

cross,    St.    Andrew's    cross,    Greek    cross,  either  as  charms  or  as  trade-marks.     The 

Maltese  cross;  lower  row,  cardinal 's  cross,  cross    and    its    derivatives,    such    as    the 

pope's   cross,    treflee    (in   heraldry),   crnx  swastika,   preponderate, 
ansata,  coronation  symbol. 

the  Pope's  cross  has  three  cross-bars;  the  latter  form  is  frequent 
in  Egyptian  art.  The  Treflee  is  a  cross  the  ends  of  which  are 
trefoil  in  shape ;  it  is  used  in  heraldry.  The  crux  ansata  (cross 
with  a  handle)  was  used  all  over  the  world  from  India,  Assyria, 
Babylon,  Egypt,  to  Sweden  and  Denmark  (old  Runic)  and  in  the 
Western  Continent.  In  inverted  shape  it  is  the  coronation  symbol 
in  European  countries.  It  is  the  atikh  of  the  Egyptians,  the  sym- 
bol of  life,  because  it  represents  the  feminine  yoni  in  union  with 
the  masculine  tau  cross. 


360  SEX  AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

SEXUAL  RELATIONSHIPS  OF  THE  GODS 

Nearly  all  religions  of  the  world  recognize  orders  of  inferior 
or  minor  deities,  spiritual  beings  which  were  immortal  or  nearly 
immortal  and  therefore  partaking  of  the  nature  of  the  gods.  These 
beings  rank  below  the  leading  deities,  or  the  gods  and  goddesses 
who  are  supposed  to  take  part  in  the  government  of  the  world 
and  who  are  worshipped.  I  do  not  recall  a  single  religion  which 
has  only  one  god  or  one  supernatural  being.  These  lower  orders 
of  spiritual  powers  seem  to  have  been  needed  to  satisfy  the  imag- 
ination of  mankind,  to  be  the  Jioi  polloi  or  the  plebs,  to  make  a 
public  over  which  the  higher  gods  could  rule. 

Yet  some  of  these  beings  were  conceived  to  take  active  part 
in  the  management  of  the  world  and  in  the  affairs  of  mankind; 
and  they  are  nearly  all  imagined  in  the  shape  of  sexual  beings, 
some  of  them  in  fact  as  being  very  concupiscent,  except  only  the 
angels,  of  whom  more  later  on. 

Spirits  such  as  fauns,  satyrs,  sileni,  gnomes,  kobolds,  nymphs, 
dryads,  elves,  fairies,  etc.,  all  have  sex. 

Hesiod  relates  that  the  men  of  the  golden  age  after  their 
deaths  became  demons,  guardians  and  watchers  over  mortals. 
The  ancient  word  "demons"  (daemones)  did  not  convey  the  same 
idea  that  is  meant  by  our  word  demon;  in  Greece  the  daemon 
(demon)  was  a  good  spirit  or  guardian  angel,  while  in  Kome  this 
spirit  was  preferably  called  a  genius,  also  meaning  guardian  an- 
gel. Among  some  people  they  were  supposed  to  be  the  ghosts  of 
the  dead,  as  Hesiod  said. 

Empedocles,  Plato  and  others  divided  the  demons  into  two 
groups,  good,  kindly  and  beneficent  powers,  and  evil,  malevolent 
and  vicious  beings.  In  the  Christian  religion  these  good  demons 
were  afterwards  transformed  into  angels  and  the  bad  demons 
into  devils,  or  into  hellish  imps,  a  sort  of  assistant  or  apprentice 
devils. 

Belief  in  demons  is  by  many  considered  to  be  superstition, 
but  others,  as  the  modern  spiritualists  and  even  members  of  some 
religious  sects  still  consider  them  to  be  real  existences.  Many 
believe  these  demons  to  be  the  causes  of  various  diseases,  and  per- 
sons afflicted  with  epilepsy,  hysteria,  mania,  or  even  with  the  de- 
lirium of  fever,  were  supposed  to  be  afflicted  with  evil  spirits  or 
devils.  Exorcisms  of  various  kinds,  ranging  from  the  magic  of 


SEX    AND   SEX    WORSHIP  361 

savages  to  the  religious  rites  of  Christians,  were  practiced  to  ex- 
pel evil  spirits  or  demons,  while  prayers,  amulets,  crucifixes,  in- 
cantations and  phylacteries  of  various  kinds  are  used  to  guard 
against  them. 

Phylacteries  are  charms  or  amulets  which  are  worn  as  a  pre- 
servative against  disease  or  danger  of  any  kind.  A  crucifix,  or 
even  the  sign  of  the  cross  made  with  the  hand  became  a  powerful 
charm  of  this  kind;  it -could  open  locked  doors;  counteract  the 
action  of  poison ;  cure  bites  of  rabid  animals ;  or  exorcise  evil  spir- 
its. The  relics  of  martyrs  had  similar  virtues. 

Pliny,  the  Elder,  said  that  "true  it  is  that  a  collar  of  amber 
beads  worn  about  the  neck  of  young  infants  is  a  singular  preven- 
tive against  secret  poison  and  a  counter-charm  for  witchcraft  and 
sorceries." 

We  read  (Mark  v,  1-13)  that  Jesus  exorcised  a  crowd  of  un- 
clean spirits  from  a  possessed  man  and  made  the  spirits  enter  into 
a  herd  of  swine.  Cyril,  Tertullian,  Chrysostom  and  other  church- 
fathers  taught  that  epileptics  or  "demoniacs"  were  really  under 
the  influence  of  demons  or  evil  spirits,  who  had  to  be  exorcised, 
justifying  themselves  in  this  belief  by  quoting  Jesus  as  having 
also  believed  thus. 

The  barring  of  the  passage  of  evil  spirits,  or  their  exorcism, 
could  be  secured  by  the  Pythagorean  pentagram  (also  called 
pentageron  or  pentagon)  which  was  at  one  time  considered  a 
wonderful  mystic  symbol  or  figure ;  it  was  used  as  the  sign  of  the 
cross  is  now  used  by  the  Catholics,  and  is  in  fact  still  used  from 
Ireland  to  China  as  a  magic  charm.  According  to  Lucian  it  was 
used  by  the  Pythagoreans  as  a  salutation  and  as  a  symbol  of 
health,  made  with  the  hand  in  front  of  themselves,  as  the  Catho- 
lics make  the  sign  of  the  cross,  when  they  "cross  themselves." 

Among  the  Teutons  and  Norsemen  this  sign  was  supposed  to 
represent  a  footprint  of  one  of  the  "swanfooted"  Norns  (see 
page  406) ;  when  Christianity  was  introduced  the  Norns  were  re- 
duced to  witches,  and  after  that  this  sign,  together  with  the  sign 
of  the  cross,  was  placed  on  door-sills  and  door-frames  to  keep 
away  witches  or  "drudes."  This  pentagram  is  shown  in  cut  A; 
and  also  the  method  of  making  the  sign  with  the  hand,  in  the  direc- 
tion indicated  by  the  arrow,  shown  in  cut  B  (see  page  362). 

Another  powerful  charm  was  that  shown  in  cut  C.  It  consists 
of  the  Greek  letters  alplia  and  omega,  the  first  and  last  letters  of 


362  SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

the  Greek  alphabet,  combined  with  the  monogram  of  Christ  (ch 
and  r).  It  meant  that  Christ  was  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  all 
things. 

John  Baptisia  von  Helmont  (1577)  considered  the  natural 
phenomena  as  the  action  of  spiritual  powers  or  demons.  Thunder 
is  the  voice  of  a  demon  Kakadaemon,  who  was  the  executor  of 
God's  will  through  which  the  earth  and  those  who  dwell  therein 
are  frightened  into  being  good ;  earthquakes  are  due  to  blows  ad- 
ministered to  the  earth  by  this  "angel  of  the  Lord;"  etc.  This 
was  therefore  a  good  demon  or  angel. 

In  the  apocryphal  book  Tobit  occurs  the  story  of  the  love  of  a 
demon,  Asmodeus,  for  Sara,  the  daughter  of  Raguel,  whose  seven 
husbands  were  slain  in  succession  by  the  demon  on  their  marriage 
nights.  At  last  Tobit  exorcised  the  demon  by  burning  the  heart 
and  liver  of  a  fish.  Asmodeus  (Jewish)  is  often  called  the  genius 
of  matrimonial  unhappiness. 


c. 


In  Bulgaria  and  adjacent  Slavonic  lands  there  still  prevails 
the  superstitious  dread  of  were-wolves  and  vampires.  The  were- 
wolves are  human  beings  who  can  change  themselves  by  magic 
arts  into  a  demon  having  the  shape  of  a  wolf  (see  p.  321)  ;  these 
demons  are  closely  allied  to  the  vampires  but  differ  in  being 
living  human  beings  who  can  change  back  to  the  human  form. 
They  are  fond  of  eating  humans,  and  may  attack  people  whom 
they  meet  ;  or  they  are  fond  of  eating  corpses  and  are  supposed  to 
disinter  and  eat  the  dead.  A  mark  by  which  they  can  be  recog- 
nized when  they  have  their  human  form  is  that  the  eyebrows  meet 
or  are  continuous  over  the  nose. 

The  vampire  is  a  nocturnal  demon,  a  dead  person  who  comes 
out  of  the  grave,  to  suck  the  souls  or  the  blood  out  of  his  victims, 
or  to  eat  out  the  hearts  of  the  living.  This  superstition  is  an 
effort  to  account  for  wasting  diseases,  as  tuberculosis,  etc.  There 
are  two  theories  of  what  vampires  are  ;  the  one  just  stated  being 
the  more  common  one.  But  they  are  also  sometimes  thought  to 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  363 

be  like  the  were-wolves,  sorcerers  or  witches  cannibalistically  in- 
clined, who  can  change  themselves  in  form.  By  "strength"  some- 
times is  meant  semen;  the  vampires  are  also  nocturnal  demons 
who  sucked  the  strength  from  the  penises  of  their  victims;  this 
was  sometimes  merely  a  fear  or  sensation  caused  by  nocturnal 
emissions  accompanied  by  dreams,  but  may  have  been  actual  per- 
sons fond  of  doing  this.  All  through  the  ages  this  practice  has 
prevailed ;  in  primitive  times  sucking  or  kissing  the  penis  of  a  chief 
was  like  the  king's  touch  in  England  or  France,  a  cure  for  many 
troubles;  it  was  supposed  to  be  especially  efficacious  for  curing 
sterility  in  women.  Among  the  Druses  the  Sheik  or  chief  grants 
audiences  on  certain  days  to  women  who  wish  to  kiss  his  lingam 
for  this  purpose;  in  modern  times  Brown-Sequard's  elixir  was 
made  from  the  testicles  of  slaughtered  animals,  and  a  proprietary 
medicine  made  from  testicles  is  also  on  the  market.  Mohammedan 
women  kiss  the  penis  of  a  priest  or  of  an  idiot,  neither  of  whom 
is  supposed  to  be  erotically  affected  by  such  a  caress.  Sucking 
the  fresh  semen  is  sometimes  now  considered  a  sovereign  remedy 
for  wasting  diseases,  or,  as  in  the  houses  of  prostitution,  an  un- 
failing cosmetic  remedy  to  produce  a  fine  complexion.  Anyhow, 
when  surreptitiously  done  by  night-prowlers,  the  latter  were  taken 
to  be  vampires  and  the  victim  was  too  frightened  to  make  any  out- 
cry. 

The  Charaka-Samhita,  the  oldest  Hindu  medical  treatise  ex- 
tant, says:  "Of  all  things  that  promote  strength,  the  best  is  the 
flesh  of  the  cock.  Of  all  things  that  increase  the  semen  is  the  vital 
seed  of  the  alligator."  This  shows  that  the  taking  of  fresh  (vital) 
semen  of  an  animal  was  considered  a  wonderful  remedy  for  "loss 
of  vitality,"  and  sucking  it  from  the  penises  of  men  has  been  a 
practice  of  both  men  and  women  for  ages,  antedating  Brown-Se- 
quard's theories  for  many  centuries. 

When  a  corpse  was  the  vampire,  it  was  supposed  to  remain 
ruddy  and  lifelike  in  appearance;  if  a  dead  person  is  supposed  to 
be  a  vampire  this  can  be  remedied  by  opening  the  grave  and  driv- 
ing a  stake  through  the  body  into  the  ground,  but  a  surer  plan  is 
to  cut  off  the  head  and  burn  it.  If  the  person  had  heavy  eyebrows 
continuing  and  meeting  above  the  nose,  the  precautions  just  stated 
were  sometimes  taken  when  he  or  she  was  first  buried,  as  a  pre- 
cautionary measure.  The  priests  in  the  Balkan  lands  also  may 


364  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

use  the  formula  of  the  church  for  exorcism  when  attending  the 
funeral. 

It  is  almost  impossible  for  us  at  the  present  time  to  realize 
in  what  dread  Christian  communities  stood  of  these  demons  or 
devils.  The  Avorld  or  air  was  full  of  hosts  of  evil  spirits  and  of 
contending  armies  of  angels,  who  battled  for  the  souls  of  the 
humans. 

The  ancient  Assyrians  believed  in  incubi  and  succubi,  whom 
they  called  lilit;  this  belief  was  transferred  to  the  Jews,  probably 
during  the  Babylonian  captivity,  and  from  this  came  the  story 
told  by  the  Eabbinical  traditions,  the  Talmud,  of  Adam's  first 
wife  Lilith,  a  demon.  She,  however,  left  Adam  and  "took  up" 
with  Beelzebub,  or  Baal-Zebub,  the  master  of  flies,  who  protected 
mankind  from  the  noxious  insects. 

The  vampires,  or  drinkers,  and  the  incubi  and  succubi,  de- 
mons wrho  cohabit  with  men  and  women  while  they  sleep,  are 
simply  nightmare  effects,  mainly  probably  due  to  involuntary 
emissions  of  semen  while  in  a,  half-awake,  or  dreaming,  condition. 
The  belief  in  succubi  (nightmares)  as  demons,  led  to  a  belief  in 
the  vampires. 

In  the  Zend-Avesta,  the  ancient  sacred  books  of  the  Persians, 
demonology  was  worked  out  to  the  minutest  details.  The  Persian 
religion  believed  in  two  great  rival  influences,  continuously  at 
war  with  one  another;  they  were  Ahura-Mazda  (Ormuzd)  who 
was  a  god  of  light  and  good,  and  Ahura-Mainyes  ( Ahriman)  a  god 
of  evil;  each  was  attended  by  innumerable  hosts  of  attendant 
demons,  the  good  spirits  being  opposed  by  the  evil  ones  who  tried 
to  spread  sin  in  the  world. 

This  belief  had  great  influence  on  three  other  faiths  from 
which  so  much  that  is  now  called  Christianity  was  derived,  namely, 
on  the  Jewish,  or  Talmudic  teachings,  on  Manichaeism,  and  on 
early  Christianity. 

Manichaeism  was  a  rival  religion  with  early  Christianity  dur- 
ing the  early  centuries  of  our  era.  It  taught  that  Satan  made 
Adam  and  Eve;  the  latter  was  seductive  sensuousness,  to  which 
Adam  fell  victim  through  sexual  desire.  We  have  already  learned 
about  this  elsewhere.  The  Manichaeists  also  believed  that  Satan 
seduced  Eve  and  that  Cain  and  Abel  were  the  sons  of  Eve  by 
Satan. 

Men  or  women  could  obtain  weird  powers  of  witchcraft  by 


SEX    AND   SEX    WORSHIP 


365 


making  compacts  with  these  demons,  and  so  general  was  the  be- 
lief that  even  sober,  supposedly  scientific  men,  editors  of  encyclo- 
paedias, theologians,  physicians,  professors,  etc.,  believed  this. 
It  was  also  thought  that  magical  powers  could  be  obtained  through 
good  demons  by  abstaining  from  sexual  contact  with  women,  fast- 
ing and  pious  meditations. 

Simon  Magus  was  a  celebrated  magician  (about  60  A.D.)  and 
he  caused  himself  to  be  taken  for  God.  He  was  a  Gnostic.  He 
taught  that  the  apostles  were  merely  magicians.  He  called  him- 
self ''the  great  power  of  God" — "Ego  sum  sermo  Dei" — "I  am 


Fig.   192. — St.  Ignatius  exorcising  evil 
spirits  to  cure  epilepsy. 


Fig.   193. — St.  Radegonde  exorcising  evil 
spirits. 


the  word  of  God!"  He  traveled  in  company  with  a  certain  woman 
named  Helena,  who  was  a  prostitute  whom  he  had  bought  in  the 
city  of  Tyre,  who,  he  claimed,  "was  the  first  conception  of  his 
mind,  the  mother  of  all  things  by  whom  in  the  beginning  he  con- 
ceived the  thought  of  making  angels  and  archangels." 

Simon  Magus  publicly  announced  that  he  would  ascend  to 
heaven  on  a  certain  day,  and  his  demons  actually  carried  him  up 
in  the  air  to  a  considerable  height ;  St.  Peter,  \vho  was  at  the  time 
in  Rome,  used  exorcisms  on  the  demons,  who  thereby  lost  their 
magical  powers  and  were  no  longer  able  to  raise  him  farther,  but 


366 


SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


dropped  him,  so  that  he  fell  and  broke  his  neck.  All  this  is  au- 
thentically related  as  "history"  in  a  work  of  1740. 

Figure  192  shows  St.  Ignatius  exorcising  the  evil  spirits  who 
caused  epilepsy ;  it  is  copied  from  a  medieval  altar-piece. 

Also,  St.  Radegonde  is  shown  as  exorcising  evil  spirits  from 
a  girl  who  afflicted  others  by  aid  of  the  demons  in  her  (Fig.  193). 

The  witches'  sabbath  was  a  nocturnal  meeting  of  witches, 
usually  said  to  have  been  held  on  the  Brocken  or  Blocksberg,  a 
mountain  peak  of  the  Hartz  mountains,  on  Walpurgis  night.  Here 


Fig.  194.— "Return  of  the  Witches,"  from  painting  by  Falero. 

the  witches  and  the  demons  cohabited  in  promiscuous  freedom. 
This  shows  the  return  from  the  meeting  (Fig.  194). 

The  Christian  church  thought  it  possible  for  witches  to  con- 
ceive and  give  birth  to  the  fruits  of  such  unions,  and  multitudes 
of  women  and  their  children  were  tried  and  convicted  and  burnt. 
It  was  thought  that  wherever  the  demon  had  touched  the  witch, 
she  became  anaesthetized  so  that  she  would  not  feel  anything. 
The  mode  of  examining  a  supposed  witch  was  to  strip  her  naked 
and  cut  or  puncture  her  body  at  many  places  to  find  the  anaesthe- 
tized spot;  she  soon  became  hysterical  from  fright  and  no  longer 
was  conscious  of  the  pain,  and  so  was  easily  convicted  (Fig.  195). 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  367 

Another  method  of  trying  a  witch  was  to  strip  her  naked  and 
then  tie  her  right  thumb  to  the  big  toe  of  the  left  foot,  and  the 
thumb  of  the  left  hand  to  the  right  big  toe,  her  arms  thus  making 
the  symbol  of  the  cross;  she  was  then  thrown  in  deep  water,  but 
held  by  a  rope  around  the  waist,  in  case  she  should  sink.  If  she 
was  a  witch  she  would  float ;  if  she  sank  she  was  taken  out  of  the 
water  and  acquitted.  As  a  naked  human  body  has  a  specific  grav- 
ity a  little  less  than  water,  the  average  body  will  float  if  the  per- 
son does  not  struggle  too  much,  consequently  the  average  sus- 
pected person  would  be  convicted.  Tying  the  arms  in  cross- 
fashion  was  to  keep  the  devils  from  coming  to  the  aid  and  inter- 
fering with  a  fair  ordeal  trial. 

It  is  a  question  whether  the  witches'  sabbath  was  altogether 


Fig.  195. — "Trial  of  a  Witch,"  from  a  painting. 

imaginary,  or  whether  it  had  a  foundation  in  fact  by  the  secret 
survival  of  some  of  the  ancient  festivals — Faunalia,  Saturnalia. 
Liberalia,  Floralia,  etc. 

We  have  learned  that  among  primitive  people  marriage  was 
not  known,  but  that  promiscuous  cohabitation  was  practiced ;  man- 
kind imagined  that  certain  lower  spiritual  beings  practiced  this 
type  of  relationship.  The  fauns,  in  Roman  mythology,  were  minor 
deities  who  presided  over  and  fostered  the  productive  powers  of 
the  soil,  increasing  the  crops,  and  of  animals,  increasing  the  herds ; 
they  lived  in  the  forests  and  fields,  and  in  order  to  set  all  nature 
a  good  example,  spent  much  of  their  time  in  pursuing  and  raping 
nymphs ;  in  other  words,  they  were  the  original  * ( chippie-chasers ' ' 
(Fig.  196). 


368  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

Both  the  male  faunus  and  the  female  fauna  could  foretell  the 
future.  In  honor  of  these  rural  gods  the  festival  of  the  Faunalia 
was  celebrated,  which  was  supposed  to  be  presided  over  by  Pria- 
pus  or  Pan,  and  on  which  occasions  the  people  indulged  in  pro- 
miscuous intercourse  as  a  religious  rite.  As  stated  above,  these 
festivals  may  have  survived  in  secret,  with  their  unbridled  and 
unnatural  sexual  orgies,  and  have  been  the  "sabbaths"  of  the 
witchcraft  courts.  Under  torture,  those  arrested  may  have  made 
confessions  that  were  true ;  or  the  victims  of  torture  may  in  some 
cases  merely  have  confessed  to  a  traditional  knowledge  of  folk- 
lore, of  this  licentious  rite  of  worship  of  Pagan  gods. 

Satyrs  were  half  human,  half  bestial  spirits  that  haunted  the 
woods;  they  were  probably  fabled  offspring  of  the  union  of  hu- 
mans with  the  goats  of  Mendes  (see  p.  435).  They  were  very 


Fig.  196. — Nymphs  were  pursued  ' '  on  sight ' '  by  fauns,  sileni,  satyrs,  and  gods.     This 
shows  Apollo  pursuing  the  nymph  Daphne. 

salacious,  fond  of  wine  and  women,  and  ever  chasing  nymphs, 
from  which  characteristic  we  have  the  medical  term  of  satyriasis ; 
from  the  nymphs  we  get  the  term  nymphomania  (Fig.  197).  Mod- 
ernized and  adopted  into  Christian  mythology  they  became  devils, 
like  the  demons. 

The  sileni  were  similar  to  satyrs  and  fauns,  but  were  of  higher 
grade;  they  were  educated,  learned  beings,  who  often  instructed 
humans  in  useful  arts. 

Nymphs  were  female  spirits  similar  to  fauns,  but  exquisitely 
beautifully  human  in  form ;  Hesiod  called  them  the  ' '  ever-youthful 
maidens  of  heaven;"  he  said  they  lived  9720  times  as  long  as 
mortals.  They  lived  in  the  fields  and  woods,  and  were  supposed 
to  be  continually  pursued  by  fauns,  satyrs  and  sileni.  The  wor- 


SEX    AND   SEX    WORSHIP  369 

ship  of  nymphs  was  general  in  rural  districts  in  Greece  and  Rome ; 
they  were  considered  as  pretty  and  kindly  spirits,  fond  of  watch- 
ing over  and  caring  for  children,  but  no  priesthood  was  required 
in  their  service.  Offerings  were  made  by  the  worshippe'rs  them- 
selves, consisting  of  flowers,  fruits,  and  libations  of  wine. 

Naiads  were  nymphs  of  springs  and  small  streams;  hama- 
dryads, or  dryads,  were  nymphs  of  trees  and  woods;  each  partic- 
ular tree  or  spring  or  small  stream  having  its  own  special  dryad 
or  naiad,  just  as  each  larger  stream  or  river  had  its  own  river- 


Fig.  197. — A  family  of  satyrs,  and  a  pillar  of  Pan. 

god.  The  dryads,  from  their  close  connection  with  trees,  were 
supposed,  like  them,  to  have  sprung  from  the  soil. 

Marriages  of  humans  with  nymphs  were  supposed  to  be  pos- 
sible. At  marriages,  the  nymphs  were  prayed  to  for  blessings; 
the  bride  was  bathed  by  her  attendants  in  the  spring  or  sprinkled 
with  water  from  the  spring  in  which  nymphs  or  naiads  resided. 

All  these  feminine  forms  of  minor  deities  were  called  "maid- 
ens of  heaven"  or  "daughters  of  Zeus."  They  all  lived  in  pro- 
miscuous relations  with  fauns,  satyrs  and  sileni. 

Mention  may  be  made  of  a  few  more  of  the  important  de- 
mons. Aziel  wTas  the  familiar  demon  (or  guardian  angel)  of  Dr. 
Faustus,  the  myth  concerning  whom  was  described  by  Goethe; 


370  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

he  is  the  fallen  angel  Azael,  mentioned  in  the  Talmud;  Solomon 
went  every  day  to  him  for  wisdom.  Michael,  Raphael,  Uriel  and 
Gabriel  guarded  the  four  quarters  of  the  demon-circle.  The  ex- 
orcisms of  the  medieval  church  were  addressed  to  the  leaders  of 
the  demons — Satan,  Pluto,  Ariel,  Petrus  and  Adonis. 

The  good  gods  of  one  religion  were  often  reduced  to  evil  pow- 
ers in  rival  religions,  just  as  the  daemones  of  the  Greeks  became 
the  devils  or  demons  of  the  Christians.  In  the  same  manner,  when 
the  ancient  Aryan  religion  was  divided  into  the  Zarathustrian 
or  Persian  and  the  Brahmanic  faiths,  the  Devas,  or  bright  and 
good  gods  of  the  Hindus  became  the  evil  demons  of  the  Persian 
faith.  So  also  Christianity  did  not  discard  the  nature-deities  of 
Paganism,  the  Lares,  Fauns,  etc.,  but  retained  them  as  realities, 
as  evil  demons,  who,  in  nearly  all  of  their  sexual  practices  were 
represented  as  evil  and  sinful. 

But  there  were  also  good  powers  of  this  kind.  The  genius 
of  the  Romans  and  the  daemon  of  the  Greeks  was  a  form  of  guard- 
ian angel  or  guiding  spirit ;  every  person  was  accompanied  by  one 
of  these  spiritual  guides  to  lead  him  or  her  through  the  labyrinth 
of  life's  mysteries. 

The  idea  of  angels  is  old;  Moses  already  spoke  of  them. 
Philo  calls  the  word  of  God — angel;  also — idea  of  ideas,  bread 
of  life,  light-world,  first  born  of  all  creatures,  etc. 

After  the  disappearance  or  merging  of  the  old  religions  into 
the  Christian  religion,  which  took  their  places,  these  agencies 
were  transformed  into  "angels,"  or  "guardian  angels."  These 
were  conceived  by  the  Christians  as  real  entities ;  for  instance,  in 
certain  districts  of  France,  we  are  told,  the  belief  in  guardian  an- 
gels survives  in  a  very  realistic  form,  and  when  one  person  meets 
another  he  salutes  not  only  him,  but  with  a  special  and  profound 
obeisance,  also  his  guardian  angel,  who,  though  unseen,  is  imag- 
ined to  be  his  constant  companion. 

According  to  the  Bible  there  are  no  female  angels;  they  are 
always  referred  to  as  "he"  or  as  the  "angel  of  God."  The  word 
angel  means  a  messenger  or  bringer  of  tidings ;  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment they  are  represented  as  able  to  walk  and  talk  with  men,  but 
in  the  New  Testament  they  are  only  rarely  visible,  as  for  instance, 
the  angels  at  the  birth  of  Jesus,  and  the  angel  who  guarded  his 
tomb. 

According  to  Jewish  writers  they  were  regularly  organized 


SEX    AXD    SEX    WORSHIP  371 

into  a  hierarchy;  Gabriel  was  one  of  four  great  archangels;  he 
was  named  as  the  angel  who  destroyed  Sennacherib's  hosts  (see 
p.  43) ;  he  is  supposed  to  preside  over  the  domestic  fire,  or  all 
fire;  over  thunder  and  lightning,  the  ripening  of  the  crops  of  the 
soil,  etc.,  showing  therefore  the  same  attributes  as  the  nature 
gods  of  Greece  and  Rome. 

According  to  the  Koran,  he  dictated  this  book  to  Mohammed. 

In  the  book  of  Enoch,  an  apocryphal  Jewish  book,  an  account 
of  a  revolt  of  some  angels  in  heaven  is  given;  the  conquered  rebels 
are  expelled  from  heaven  and  arrive  on  earth  as  "fallen  angels;" 
they  were  all  males,  they  settled  down  with  the  daughters  of  men, 
and  produced  a  race  of  giants.  The  rebellion  of  the  angels,  under 
the  leadership  of  Satan,  is  a  prominent  feature  of  Milton's  Para- 
dise Lost. 

The  generally  prevailing  belief  that  in  the  hereafter  we  will 
become  angels  in  heaven,  is  based  on  the  teachings  of  Swedenborg 
and  others,  on  the  songs  of  revivalists,  etc.,  but  is  not  taught  by 
the  Bible.  Such  songs  as 

"I  want  to  be  an  angel 
And  with  the  angels  stand,"  etc. 

have  given  rise  to  the  popular  belief;  but  the  Bible  implies  that 
angels  are  neuters,  or  without  sex : 

Mark  xii,  25:  "For  when  they  shall  rise  from  the  dead,  they 
neither  marry  nor  are  given  in  marriage,  but  are  as  the  angels 
which  are  in  heaven."  They  do  not  become  angels;  they  only  re- 
semble angels  in  being  sexless. 

In  medieval  church  art  they  were  represented  as  males,  and 
naked  because  they  were  without  sin.  The  illustration  (Fig.  198) 
shows  an  angel  from  a  medieval  tomb  in  Florence. 

Our  modern  method  of  representing  angels  is  a  result  of 
the  "modern  decadence  in  art;"  we  would  rather  see  and  repre- 
sent pretty  women  and  girls  just  as  artists  prefer  to  paint  naked 
goddesses  and  nymphs  and  dryads  to  painting  saints  in  long  black 
gowns  and  hoods. 

Belief  in  saints,  angels,  etc.,  is  not  considered  to  be  incom- 
patible with  a  religion  professing  the  worship  of  one  God,  because 
these  powers  are  not  worshipped,  but  merely  venerated. 

As  to  what  angels  are,  opinions  differed.  Philo  said  they 
were  disembodied  human  souls  who  inhabit  the  air;  the  Gnostics 


372 


SEX  AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


said  they  were  emanations  from  God;  Origen  said  that  up  to  his 
time  (about  230  A.D.)  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  had  not  deter- 
mined at  what  time  they  were  created,  or  of  what  nature,  or  how 
they  were. 

While  the  Christians  generally  believe  that  angels  exist,  their 
history  indicates  that  they  are  probably  entirely  imaginary  beings. 

In  ancient  religions  there  were  deities  resembling  our  mod- 
ern angels,  feminine,  and  either  good  or  bad;  as  for  instance  the 
daemones  of  the  Greeks  and  the  genii  of  the  Romans. 

The  Valkyrs  were  virgin  nymphs  of  Valhalla,  the  heaven  of 


Fig.  198. — An  Angel  on  a  medieval  tomb     Fig.  199. — "The  Sirens,"  from  a  paint- 
in  Florence,  Italy.  ing  by  Thumann. 

the  Norsemen ;  they  went  out  armed,  and  mounted  on  fleet  horses, 
to  take  part  in  the  battles  waged  by  the  Norse  Avarriors.  They 
took  the  wrarriors,  whom  the  Norns  or  gods  had  designated  to  be 
slain,  conducting  them  over  the  bridge  of  the  Northlight  to  Val- 
halla, where  they  gave  them  mead  (the  drink  of  the  gods)  from 
the  skulls  of  their  enemies.  It  was  a  custom  in  many  lands  to 
make  drinking  vessels  out  of  the  tops  of  skulls.  The  Valkyrs 
therefore  were  messengers  of  the  gods  to  summon  warriors  to 
Valhalla. 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  373 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Greek  sirens  were  feminine  creatures, 
who,  like  the  Lorelei,  the  Rhine  maiden,  of  German  mythology, 
lured  boatsmen  or  mariners  to  destruction  (Fig.  199). 

The  God  of  the  Jews  and  the  Christians,  Jehovah,  is  a  celi- 
bate male  god;  for  several  centuries  during  the  early  period  of 
Christianity  this  remained  so ;  but  the  Christian  theologians  soon 
dropped  the  original  Unitarian  conception  and  introduced  a  meta- 
physical conception  of  Jesus  as  the  Son  of  God. 

The  expression  "sons  of  God"  was  very  ancient;  we  find  it 
already  in  Gen.  vi,  2:  "The  sons  of  God  saw  the  daughters  of  men 
that  they  were  fair;  and  they  took  them  wives  of  all  which  they 
chose."  The  expression  "sons  of  God"  is  used  many  times  in 
the  Old  Testament ;  the  phrase  was  possibly  taken  from  the  Hindu, 
from  which  the  myth  of  Adam  and  Eve  came,  and  may  be  based 
on  the  Hindu  myth  that  Brahma  produced  the  men,  and  that  his 
sakti  or  wife,  Saras vati,  created  women.  "Sons  of  God"  or  Bne 
Elohim  meant  illustrious  teachers,  prophets,  etc.,  who,  in  a  sub- 
ordinate way  partook  somewhat  of  Divine  nature,  by  their  supe- 
riority over  the  mass  of  mankind.  The  early  Jews  taught  that 
the  "logos,  the  word  which  was  with  God  from  the  beginning,  the 
first  outflow  of  light  from  the  eternal  source  of  light,"  lived  in 
the  saints  so  that  they  could  cure  all  diseases,  and  this  same  idea 
was  taught  by  the  early  Greek  philosophers,  Plato,  Pythagoras, 
etc.,  and  wise  men,  great  teachers  or  physicians,  were  called  proph- 
ets or  "sons  of  god"  by  the  ancient  Greeks  and  in  the  Orient  gen- 
erally. The  early  Christians  misconstrued  this  term  and  took  it 
literally;  the  early  church-fathers  were  not  great  philosophers, 
but  they  thought  that  if  any  great  man  was  worthy  to  be  called 
' '  son  of  God, ' '  surely  Jesus  was  that  man,  and  they  called  him  so. 
Then  as  the  influence  of  neighboring  faiths  made  itself  felt, 
they  introduced  the  theory  that  he  had  been  begotten  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  (a  late  development  in  the  idea  of  the  Christian  God)  and 
that  he  was  born  of  a  virgin.  However,  in  neither  Jewish  nor 
Christian  religion  is  there  reference  to  marriage. 

But  it  is  different  when  we  turn  to  the  immediately  preceding 
religions,  the  Roman  and  the  Greek.  The  Greek  is  by  far  the  most 
explicit  about  the  amours  of  the  gods,  who  are  represented  as 
adulterers,  as  practicing  incestuous,  licentious  and  cowardly  re- 
lationships not  only  with  goddesses,  but  with  nymphs  and  human 
women.  The  Hindu  gods  are  figured  in  the  same  way ;  every  rela- 


374  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

tion  that  existed  between  men  and  women  was  imagined  also 
to  exist  among  the  gods;  man  imagined  the  deities  in  his  own 
likeness. 

Incest  and  Rape 

Among  men  in  later  times  certain  women  were  set  apart  whom 
they  might  not  marry;  but  among  primitive  people  such  prohibi- 
tions did  not  exist,  any  more  than  among  animals.  When  all  the 
women  belonged  to  the  tribe  or  clan,  any  woman  may  have  been 
taken  by  any  man. 

Probably  the  earliest  prohibition  would  have  been  the  sexual 
mating  of  parents  with  children.  We  read  (Gen.  xix,  30-38) :  "And 
Lot  went  up  out  of  Zoar  *  *  *  and  dwelt  in  a  cave,  he  and  his 
two  daughters.  And  the  firstborn  said  unto  the  younger,  Our  fa- 
ther is  old  and  there  is  not  a  man  in  the  earth  to  come  in  unto  us 
after  the  manner  of  all  the  earth:  Come  let  us  make  our  father 
drink  wine,  and  we  will  lie  with  him,  that  we  may  preserve  seed 
of  our  father.  *  *  *  Thus  were  both  the  daughters  of  Lot  with 
child  by  their  father. ' ' 

St.  Paul,  writing  to  the  church  in  Corinth,  said  (I  Cor.  v,  1) : 
"It  is  reported  commonly  that  there  is  fornication  among  you, 
and  such  fornication  as  is  not  so  much  as  named  among  the  gen- 
tiles, that  one  should  have  his  father's  wife." 

Julia,  the  mother  of  Caracalla,  Emperor  of  Rome,  pretend- 
ing not  to  know  that  he  was  present,  stripped  herself  naked.  When 
Caracalla  saw  her  beautiful  body  he  exclaimed:  "I'd  like  to,  if  it 
were  lawful!"  to  which  she  replied:  "If  you  would  like  to,  it  is 
lawful!  Do  you  not  know  that  you  are  emperor  and  can  make 
the  laws!"  She  then  submitted  to  his  embraces  and  lived  there- 
after as  his  wife  and  queen. 

It  is  related  that  Hippocrates  cured  the  King  Perdiccas  (436 
B.C.)  of  Macedonia  of  a  consumption  produced  by  the  king's  inor- 
dinate but  hopeless  love  and  desire  for  his  stepmother  Phila. 

The  pharaohs  of  Egypt  usually  married  their  sisters  and 
made  them  their  queens.  Cleopatra  was  married  to  her  brother 
Ptolemy. 

Cambyses  was  told  that  his  brother  Smerdes  was  scheming 
to  become  king  in  his  place;  so  he  had  the  brother  killed,  upon 
which  their  mother  committed  suicide.  Cambyses  had  taken  his 
full  sister  as  wife ;  once  he  arranged  a  combat  between  a  lion  and 
a  dog,  but  when  the  dog  was  being  overcome,  the  dog's  brother 


SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP  375 

who  was  being  held  in  leash  near  by,  tore  loose  and  the  two  dogs 
overcame  the  lion.  Cambyses  laughed,  but  his  wife  (and  sister) 
began  to  cry;  asking  her  why,  she  replied  it  was  because  some  an- 
imals had  more  brotherly  love  than  some  human  beings;  at  this 
answer  Cambyses  felt  so  sad  and  hurt  that  he  had  his  sister-wife 
killed  also. 

The  ancient  Germans  married  their  sisters;  in  Southern  Ger- 
many this  was  not  abolished  until  the  end  of  the  VII  Century,  A.D. 

The  Gods  Lived  Like  Men 

Anunon  was  a  great  god  in  ancient  Egypt ;  he  was  also  called 
"Amen-Ra  Kamut-fe,"  "the  husband  of  his  mother." 

The  word  "Amen"  at  the  end  of  our  prayers  has  come  to 
us  from  this  god,  "Amen,"  " Amen-Ra, "  "King  of  the  Gods," 
and  this  appeal  to  him  is  used  because  his  people  had  faith  that 
he  would  hear  their  prayers ;  yet  he  took  his  mother  to  wife. 

Hesiod  says:  "And  earth,  in  sooth  bare  first  indeed  like  to 
herself  (in  size)  starry  heaven,  that  he  might  shelter  her  around 
on  all  sides.  *  *  *  ;  but  afterward,  having  bedded  with  heaven 
(her  son)  she  bare  deep-eddying  Ocean,  Caeus  and  Crius,"  etc. 
This  describes  the  incestuous  loves  of  heaven  with  his  mother 
earth. 

Odin,  AVodan  or  Watan  was  the  main  god  of  the  Teutons  or 
ancient  Germans ;  the  sun  and  moon  were  his  eyes  and  he  supported 
the  vault  of  heaven  on  his  shoulders.  He  carried  a  hammer  which 
the  god  Mjolner  made  for  him,  which  was  a  boomerang  for  it 
returned  to  his  hand  after  he  threw  it  at  anyone.  He  begat  the 
earth  with  his  daughter  Jord;  he  also  had  a  son  by  Jord,  Thor, 
who  consecrated  marriages  with  his  hammer;  the  early  Christian 
missionaries  told  the  Norwegian  Pagans  that  Thor  was  the  same 
as  Jesus  and  that  his  hammer  was  the  crucifix,  so  as  to  convert 
them  more  easily.  Thor  was  the  second  in  rank  and  the  strongest 
of  the  Aesir,  or  Norse  pantheon;  he  was  the  god  of  storm  and 
thunder. 

Demeter  (Greek)  represents  the  producing  power  of  the 
earth.  The  simplest  worship  of  Demeter  supposed  her  to  have 
been  outraged,  whereupon  she  hid  in  a  cave  (winter)  where  cold 
and  death  prevailed;  at  last  she  bathes  in  a  sacred  stream,  her 
child  is  born  and  the  life  of  spring  reappears  on  earth. 


376  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

As  Proserpina  (also  called  Persephone),  the  daughter  of 
Demeter,  was  gathering  flowers  with  her  playmates  in  a  meadow, 
the  earth  opened  and  Pluto,  the  god  of  the  underworld,  appeared 
and  forcibly  carried  off  Proserpina  to  be  his  queen  in  Hades. 
Her  mother  went  about  all  the  world  seeking  her  daughter,  and 
when  she  could  not  find  her,  she  forbade  the  earth  to  bring  forth 
any  crops  of  the  field;  nothing  grew,  not  even  grass,  and  all  an- 
imals and  mankind  would  have  starved  if  Jupiter  had  not  com- 
manded Pluto  to  return  Proserpina  to  her  mother.  This  was  cele- 
brated in  the  Eleusinian  Mysteries,  a  celebrated  Greek  festival. 

Anymone,  daughter  of  Danaiis,  went  to  get  water  for  her 
home,  during  a  drought ;  she  had  to  go  some  distance,  so  she  took 
her  javelin  along.  On  the  way  she  met  a  stag  and  threw  the 
spear  at  it,  but  missed  the  stag  and  hit  a  sleeping  faun  who  awoke 
and  pursued  her.  She  was  near  the  sea,  so  she  appealed  to  Nep- 
tune, who  heard  her  and  saved  her  from  the  faun,  but  kept  her 
for  himself.  So  she  became  the  mother  of  Nauplius,  by  Neptune. 

Lara  was  a  goddess  in  Olympus,  in  attendance  on  Juno ;  she 
learned  some  scandal  in  connection  with  one  of  the  amours  of 
Jupiter,  the  husband  of  Juno,  and  tattled  to  the  latter.  Juno 
probably  made  things  uncomfortable  for  Jupiter  for  awhile,  so 
Jupiter  had  the  tongue  of  Lara  cut  out,  and  sent  her  to  the  under- 
world in  charge  of  Mercury ;  he  took  a  fancy  to  Lara  and  commit- 
ted rape  on  her  on  the  way,  in  consequence  of  Avhich  she  gave  birth 
to  the  two  Lares. 

And  there  are  many  more  such  stories  in  all  the  mythologies 
of  the  earth ;  when  these  myths  were  invented,  the  people  were  still 
savage,  cruel,  unethical,  coarse ;  they  saw  nothing  wrong  in  com- 
mitting incest  or  rape  themselves,  and  so  could  not  conceive  of 
anything  improper  in  the  gods  doing  likewise. 

Monogamy — Polygamy 

A  great  many  gods  and  goddesses  were  married,  but  fidelity 
and  conjugal  virtue  were  practically  unknown.  We  must  remem- 
ber that  among  humans  in  those  early  days  monogamy  was  prac- 
tically unknown;  that  they  practiced  polygamy;  therefore  they 
could  not  imagine  a  strictly  monogamic  union  for  the  gods.  One 
of  the  couples  to  whom  little  or  no  scandal  attached  was  Osiris 
and  Isis,  in  Egypt;  they  were  faithful  one  to  another,  and  an  ex- 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  377 

emplary  couple  if  we  overlook  that  they  were  brother  and  sister. 

In  Greece,  Juno  was  an  exemplary  wife,  but  perhaps  too 
frigidly  chaste,  so  that  she  disappointed  her  husband  Zeus,  who 
was  a  regular  Don  Juan. 

Here  is  what  Hesiod  said  of  Zeus:  "  Jupiter,  king  of  the  gods, 
made  Metis  first  his  wife  *  *  *  next  he  wedded  bright  Themis 
and  Eurymone,  daughter  of  Ocean,  who  had  a  very  fair 
form  then  he  came  to  the  couch  of  much-nourishing 

Demeter  and  next  he  was  enamored  of  beautiful-haired 

Mnemosyne  but  Apollo  and  Artemis,  a  lovely  offspring, 

Latona,  in  sooth  brought  forth,  after  union  in  love  with  aegis- 
bearing  Jove  and  last,  made  he  blooming  Juno  his  spouse 
then  to  Jove,  Maia  bare  glorious  Hermes  *  *  *  and 
Alcmene  after  union  in  love  with  cloud-compelling  Jove  bare  Her- 
cules ."  And  this  enumeration  says  nothing  of  other 
amours,  as  with  Europa,  Leda,  Danae,  and  dozens  of  other 
''daughters  of  men,"  of  whom  Jupiter  was  very  fond. 

But  this  is  enough  to  show  that  in  connection  with  the  gods, 
ideas  of  sex  were  very  prominent  among  the  ancients. 

For  an  example  of  birth  from  a  female  without  a  male,  among 
the  deities,  see  p.  109. 

PHALLIC  WORSHIP 

This  term  is  generally  used  when  we  refer  to  sex  worship; 
strictly  speaking  it  refers  only  to  the  worship  of  the  male  organs 
of  generation — the  phallus. 

The  British  Encyclopedia,  in  speaking  of  Christianity,  says: 
"All  Paganism  is  at  heart  a  worship  of  nature  in  some  form  or 
other,  and  in  all  Pagan  religions  the  deepest  and  most  awe-in- 
spiring attribute  of  nature  was  the  power  of  reproduction.  The 
mystery  of  birth  and  becoming  was  the  deepest  mystery  of  na- 
ture; it  lay  at  the  root  of  all  thoughtful  Paganism  and  appeared 
in  various  forms,  some  of  them  of  a  more  innocent,  others  of  a 
more  debasing  type. 

"To  ancient  Pagan  thinkers,  as  well  as  to  modern  men  of  sci- 
ence, the  key  to  the  hidden  secret  of  the  origin  and  preservation 
of  the  universe  lay  in  the  mystery  of  sex.  Two  energies  or  agents, 
one  an  active  generative  (male),  the  other  a  feminine  passive  or 
susceptible  one,  were  everywhere  thought  to  combine  for  crea- 


378  SEX  AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

tive  purpose,  and  heaven  and  earth,  sun  and  moon,  day  and  night, 
were  believed  to  co-operate  to  the  production  of  being.  Upon 
some  such  basis  as  this  rested  almost  all  the  polytheistic  worship 
of  the  old  civilization,  and  to  it  may  be  traced  back,  stage  by  stage, 
the  separation  of  divinity  into  male  and  female  gods,  the  deifica- 
tion of  distinct  powers  of  nature,  and  the  idealization  of  man's 
own  faculties,  desires  and  lusts,  where  every  power  of  his  under- 
standing was  embodied  as  an  object  of  adoration,  and  every  im- 
pulse of  his  will  became  an  incarnation  of  deity.  But  in  each  and 
every  form  of  polytheism  we  find  the  slime  track  of  the  deification 
of  sex;  there  is  not  a  single  one  of  the  ancient  religions  which 
has  not  consecrated  by  some  ceremonial  rite  even  the  grossest 
forms  of  sexual  indulgence,  while  many  of  them  actually  elevated 
prostitution  into  a  solemn  service  of  religion." 

Then  the  article  proceeds  to  tell  how  all  this  is  different  in 
Christianity. 

When  we  consider  that  mankind,  when  they  first  invented  re- 
ligions, were  of  a  low  ethical  standing,  superstitious,  cruel,  unciv- 
ilized and  gross,  we  can  realize  that  they  were  not  able  to  formu- 
late religions  of  a  higher  ethical  development  than  they  themselves 
had.  In  its  origin,  the  worship  of  sex  was  as  pure  in  intent 
and  as  far  removed  from  any  ideas  of  anything  unclean  or  ob- 
scene as  any  of  our  own  religions.  And  the  rites  which  to  us  now 
seem  to  have  been  indecent,  were  practiced  by  primitive  peoples 
without  any  idea  that  they  were  not  pure  and  devout. 

Yet  from  such  ideas,  by  gradual  evolution  or  development, 
arose  our  own  religions,  presenting  identically  similar  ideas  of 
faiths,  although  in  what  we  consider  a  purer  form. 

The  Unity  of  Religions,  one  definition  of  Unitarianism,  is 
that  all  religions  seek  to  Know  the  Truth,  and  to  worship  God, 
or  the  "Power  that  works  for  Good,"  as  Channing  expressed  it. 
The  majority  of  people  believe  in  revelation  as  the  source  of  our 
religions;  but  ancient  as  well  as  modern  writers  have  held  the 
idea  that  our  religions  are  due  to  a  process  of  evolution. 

Cicero  thought  that  "as  we  are  led  by  nature  to  think  that 
there  are  gods,  and  as  we  discover  by  reason  of  what  description 
they  are,  so,  by  the  consent  of  all  nations,  we  are  induced  to  be- 
lieve that  our  souls  survive ;  but  where  their  habitation  is,  and  of 
what  character  they  eventually  are,  must  be  learned  from  reason. ' ' 

Even  some  of  the  early  church-fathers  imply  that  religious 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP  37!) 

sentiment  was  a  natural  growth  from  previous  cruder  beliefs. 
Clement  of  Alexandria,  for  instance,  thought  so. 

Others  have  thought  so  of  all  other  religions  except  their  oicn, 
as  is  distinctly  claimed  in  the  article  " Christianity"  in  the  En- 
cyclopedia Britannica. 

David,  in  the  116  Psalm  (v.  11)  said:  "I  said  in  my  haste, 
all  men  are  liars."  If  he  had  been  a  modern  man,  he  might  have 
added  the  polite  prevarication — "present  company  excepted!" 

This  polite  attitude  toward  our  own  religions  is  adopted  by 
some  writers  on  Phallic  Worship  for  fear  of  hurting  the  feelings 
of  some  readers;  it  is  an  attitude  adopted  by  some  writers,  who 
do  not  refer  to  Christian  ideas  for  fear  of  giving  offence,  and  they 
even  misrepresent  the  truth  in  this  regard.  But  if  we  are  to  have 
a  fair  knowledge  of  the  subject,  the  suppression  of  part  of  the 
truth,  for  politeness'  sake,  is  not  permissible. 

Our  individual  religion  is  rarely  the  result  of  study  and 
thought,  but  rather,  the  result  of  habit  and  inheritance;  we  are 
what  we  are,  Christians,  Mohammedans  or  Pagans,  Catholics, 
Presbyterians  or  Methodists,  etc.,  because  our  parents  were  such : 
and  we  take  the  religion  we  have  inherited  on  faith,  because, 
either  we  have  no  time,  or  no  facilities,  or  no  ability  to  study  the 
matter  critically  and  impartially  to  ascertain  the  truth;  or,  we 
have  not  the  education  that  will  enable  us  to  judge  for  ourselves, 
and  so  the  "laissez  faire"  policy  of  accepting  our  inherited  faith 
and  not  worrying  about  it,  may  seem  best,  and  probably  is  best, 
to  the  greater  majority. 

It  is  related  that  Bishop  Wolfrannum  converted  the  French 
King  Radbodus  (713  A.D.)  to  Christianity.  As  the  king  was  about 
to  enter  the  baptismal  font,  he  asked  the  bishop  where  his  ances- 
tors were — in  heaven  or  hell?  The  bishop  said  that  as  they  all 
had  been  heathen,  they  were  no  doubt  in  hell.  King  Radbodus 
thereupon  stepped  out  of  the  font  and  said  that  he  would  rather 
remain  as  he  was  and  be  with  a  kingly  line  hereafter,  in  hell,  than 
with  a  lot  of  beggars  in  heaven  (Fig.  200). 

In  all  religions  there  is  a  worship  of  a  Power,  or  Powers, 
greater  than  ourselves  and  outside  of  ourselves,  a  power,  in  whose 
grasp  we  are  as  helpless  and  impotent  as  was  the  nightingale  in 
the  claws  of  the  hawk,  as  told  in  the  fable  by  Hesiod  in  the  old 
Greek  Bible  (page  335). 

Primitive  man  conceived  many  forms  or  manifestations  of 


380 


SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


Divine  Power,  and  therefore  polytheism,  or  a  belief  in  many  gods, 
is  a  peculiarity  of  Pagan  people. 

In  whatever  form  this  Divine  Power  was  conceived,  it  al- 
most always  took  the  form  of  the  worship  of  a  sexual  power  that 
created  all  nature.  The  burden  of  most  religions  is — "worship 
thy  Creator."  The  Creator,  in  practically  all  nations  of  Aryan 
extraction,  was  the  "Father,"  "our  Father,"  "our  Father  who 
art  in  Heaven!" 

Among  Aryans  the  most  primitive  idea  was,  that  Uranus  or 
Sky  overlay  and  held  Gaea  or  Earth  in  one  unending  sexual  em- 
brace, from  which  resulted  the  creation  of  all  things;  so  thought 
the  Greeks  and  Romans. 

Or  the  Spirit  of  God  brooded  over  the  waters  and  generated 


Fig.  200. — King  Eadbodus  refuses  to  be  baptized.     In  medieval  times  those  about  to  be 

baptized  bad  to  be  naked. 

the  earth  and  all  that  is  therein;  so  thought  the  ancient  Jews. 
Possibly  only  a  male  god  was  intended  in  Genesis  and  the  ascrib- 
ing of  feminine  character  to  the  waters  may  be  a  later  philosoph- 
ical interpretation. 

Power,  Strength,  Brute  Force,  in  storm  or  torrent,  in  man  or 
beast,  always  inspired  awe.  The  flash  of  lightning,  the  crash  of 
thunder,  the  roar  of  the  hurricane,  struck  terror  into  the  heart  of 
man  and  made  him  recognize  his  own  insignificance  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  power  that  ne  imagined  to  be  the  cause  of  these  phe- 
nomena (Fig.  201). 

All  manifestations  of  nature  which  were  inexplicable  to  primi- 
tive man,  or  which  he  could  not  produce,  control  or  check,  he 
ascribed  to  a  power  which  he  called  "God." 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


381 


"A  voice  in  the  wind  I  do  not  know; 
A  meaning  on  the  face  of  the  high  hills 
Whose  utterance  I  can  not  comprehend ; 
A  something  is  behind  them:  That  is  God!" 

In  all  religions  the  deepest  and  most  awe-inspiring  attribute 
of  nature  was  the  power  of  procreation  or  of  reproduction.  Even 
St.  Paul  said:  "A  man  shall  be  joined  unto  his  wife, 

and  they  two  shall  be  one  flesh.  This  is  a  great  mystery!" 

Nature  held  no  greater  mystery  than  the  mystery  of  birth, 
and  the  origin  of  life ;  and  this  deepest  riddle  of  nature  attracted 
the  thoughts  and  attention  of  philosophers  since  very  early  times. 


Fig.   201. — "Origin  of  Religious  Sentiment,''   from   a   painting  by  KaufTmann. 

I  have  endeavored,  in  the  quotations  from  the  ancients  to  give 
some  idea  of  the  great  importance  of  this  question  to  their  minds, 
and  to  give  some  of  the  theories  they  arrived  at  in  the  effort  to 
solve  the  mystery. 

In  all  times  since  man  began  to  think  at  all,  the  secret  of  his 
own  origin  and  existence  must  have  most  profoundly  engaged  the 
thoughts  of  man.  As  long  probably  as  man  was  able  to  have  a 
conscious  appreciation  of  the  blessings  of  life  or  existence,  man- 
kind was  thankful  to  the  Creator;  and  this  thankfulness  is  the 
burden  of  all  religions  to  this  day.  All  Christian  literature  is  full 
of  the  command,  "Worship  thy  Creator,"  but  this  is  not  de- 


382  SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

manded  in  the  Bible,  which  merely  says,  "Remember  thy  Cre- 
ator" (Eccl.  xii,  1). 

Ideas  as  to  the  nature  of  the  Creator  have  changed,  and  the 
tracing  of  these  changes  gives  us  some  slight  insight  into  the  mode 
of  revelation  which  has  imparted  to  man  his  ideas  of  God ;  running 
through  all  religions  we  find  the  same  thankfulness  to  the  power 
that  gave  us  our  being ;  in  every  form  of  religion  we  find  traces  of 
the  deification  of  sex. 

The  Lingam:  General  Considerations 

It  must  have  been  noticed  at  quite  an  early  time  that  no  child 
was  born  unless  the  man  first  copulated  with  the  woman;  how 
completely  male  man  claimed  the  credit  for  the  creation  of  a  new 
human  being  appears  from  the  theory  of  Anaxagoras  (about 
450  B.C.)  that  the  embryo  was  formed  altogether  from  the  seed  of 
the  father  and  that  the  mother  merely  furnished  the  place  for  its 
development,  as  the  seed  of  a  plant  might  be  placed  in  the  ground 
and  grow.  (See  p.  140.)  This  theory,  that  the  man  "gave  chil- 
dren to  his  wife"  is  still  held  by  some,  as  appears  from  the  fre- 
quent use  of  the  expression  "he  made  her  a  child."  In  Gen.  xxx, 
1,  Rachel  is  quoted  as  having  the  same  idea  for  "when  Rachel 
saw  that  she  bare  Jacob  no  children,  Rachel  said  unto 

Jacob,  Give  me  children,  or  else  I  die." 

Male  man,  on  account  of  his  physical  strength,  subjugated 
the  women  and  children,  so  that  they  looked  up  to  the  father  of 
the  family  with  awe,  as  to  a  sort  of  household  divinity,  especially 
as  in  many  tribes,  and  even  in  some  advanced  nations,  the  man 
held  absolute  sway  over  liberty  and  even  over  life  and  death  of 
his  women,  children  and  slaves. 

Herbert  Spencer  believed  that  ancestor  worship  was  the  first 
and  the  original  religion. 

The  chief  characteristic  of  the  man,  the  male  organ  of  genera- 
tion, came  to  be  looked  upon  as  the  symbol  of  the  authority, 
strength  and  power  of  the  father,  or  creator  of  his  family,  and 
eventually  as  a  symbol  for  the  Creator  himself. 

The  subordinate  position  accorded  to  woman  in  such  religions 
we  have  already  considered  (see  p.  66). 

Among  the  Greeks  the  male  organ,  penis  and  two  testicles, 
was  called  phallus,  wherefore  we  call  sex  worship  also  phallic 
worship.  (Fig.  202.) 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP 


383 


Among  the  ancient  Phoenicians  the  penis  was  called  "  Asher," 
meaning:  "The  Upright,  The  Powerful,  The  Opener."  The  lat- 
ter term  referred  to  the  rupturing  of  the  hymen  in  the  first  coi- 
tion with  a  virgin.  Philo  tells  us  about  some  of  the  Phoenician 
gods,  for  instance:  One  of  these  accounts  tells  about  "Chrysor, 
the  Opener,"  corresponding  to  the  Egyptian  god  Ptah,  or  the 
Phoenician  Asher  "the  opener,"  which  means  the  one  who  first 
fertilizes  a  virgin,  he  who  ruptures  the  hymen  and  "opens  the 
door  to  the  womb,"  the  way  to  the  vagina.  Possibly  Ptah  was  con- 
sidered identical  with  "Baal-Peor,"  the  "Master  of  the  Open- 
ing," the  "Master  of  the  Hole"  or  the  "Master  of  the  Vulva." 


t^ 


/^  \PK 


Fig.  202.—  The  phallus  and  its 
symlx>ls. 


Fig.  203.—  Phallic  symbols  used  by  the  alchemists  in 
medieval  times. 


Similar  ideas  prevailed  among  the  ancient  Israelites;  the  Bible 
speaks  of  God  Jehovah  as  the  opener;  Gen.  xxx,  22:  "and  God 
remembered  Rachel,  and  God  hearkened  to  her  and  opened  her 
womb;"  Gen.  xix,  31:  "and  when  the  Lord  saw  that  Leah  was 
hated  he  opened  her  womb;"  etc. 

Oaths  were  taken  by  appealing  to  some  god;  or  by  touching 
something  sacred  to  some  god  ;  among  the  ancient  Jews,  by  laying 
the  hand  on  the  penis  of  the  one  to  whom  the  oath  was  given. 
Like  elsewhere  in  the  Bible,  the  translators  were  ashamed  of  the 
plainness  of  the  "word  of  God"  as  they  found  it  in  the  original 
text  and  undertook  to  reprove  God,  by  improving  on  his  diction, 


384  SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

and  they  translated  phallus  or  penis  in  Hebrew  into  ''loin"  in 
English. 

The  touching  or  kissing  of  the  Bible,  when  taking  an  oath,  was 
the  same  idea — touching  something  sacred.  And  our  merely  hold- 
ing up  our  right  hand  still  retains  the  idea ;  it  implies  an  appeal 
to  heaven  to  witness  the  truth  of  the  statement.  The  oath  origi- 
nally therefore  was  calling  on  Asher,  or  Baal,  as  a  witness. 

The  Bible  tells  us  that  this  deity  was  called  "Baal"  or  "The 
Master;"  or  "Baal-Peor"— the  "Master  of  the  Hole,"  or  Vulva, 
among  the  Pagan  neighbors  of  the  ancient  Israelites.  Among  the 
Hindus  the  penis  is  called  "lingam,"  and  it  is  reverenced  as  the 
visible  representation  of  the  Creator  by  more  than  three  hundred 
millions  of  Asiatic  people  today.  In  the  ruins  of  ancient  Egyptian 
temples  this  symbol  is  often  represented  in  realistic  form,  as  seen 
in  sculptures  from  many  ancient  Egyptian  temples.  And  from 
Egypt  it  was  transferred  to  Greek  worship  by  Melampus.  It  is 
also  represented  thus  in  some  of  the  ruins  of  Aztec  temples. 

Among  the  Egyptians  a  figure  of  it  was  also  used  as  a  char- 
acter in  their  hieroglyphic  writings,  "man"  or  "father;"  *•  i^ 

was  mainly  used  as  an  ideograph,  and  it  meant  "in  front,"  "be- 
fore," "generation,"  or  "man." 

But  more  frequently  the  lingam  was  represented  symboli- 
cally (Fig.  202) : — as  a  simple  pillar;  as  a  pillar  with  two  stones 
at  the  base  to  represent  the  testicles  whence  our  popular  word 
"stones"  for  testicles,  as  well  as  the  Biblical  word  for  them  (Lev. 
xxi,  20) ;  as  a  pillar  with  a  transverse  bar,  like  a  capital  letter  T 
upside  down ;  or  as  this  could  not  readily  be  seen  when  surrounded 
by  a  crowd  of  worshippers  it  was  also  symbolized  as  the  "tau 
cross,"  like  a  letter  T. 

We  must  always  remember  that  to  primitive  man,  as  well  as 
to  Pagan  minds,  there  is  nothing  indecent  in  the  natural  physi- 
ologic use  of  any  organ  of  the  human  body.  God  did  not  create 
Adam  and  Eve  with  a  sense  of  shame  regarding  their  naked  bod- 
ies. Therefore  the  idea  of  shame  about  sex  matters  was  in  a 
sense  unnatural;  to  use  the  figures  of  the  sexual  organs  as  sym- 
bols of  creative  power  was  natural  and  without  intention  of  any 
erotic  meaning.  The  use  of  these  symbols  was  for  religious  wor- 
ship; the  only  other  use  made  of  them  was  for  burial  places; 
therefore,  the  temples  and  the  tombs  or  graves  were  marked  with 


SEX    AND   SEX    WORSHIP 


385 


these  sacred  figures,  and  it  stands  to  reason  that  no  people  would 
desecrate  these  places  with  anything  that  suggested  impropriety 
or  obscenity  or  vulgarity  to  them. 

The  erection  of  pillars  of  stone  was  already  referred  to 
(p.  356) ;  dolmens  and  similar  pillars  abound  throughout  the 
world;  but  these,  perhaps  for  similar  reasons  as  those  that  influ- 
enced the  ancient  Jews,  were  plain  stones,  for  the  use  of  hewn 
stones  to  make  an  altar  was  forbidden  in  Exod.  xx,  25;  "and  if 
thou  wilt  make  me  an  altar  of  stone,  thou  shalt  not  build  it  of 
hewn  stone,  for  if  thou  lift  up  thy  tool  upon  it,  thou  hast  pol- 
luted it."  But  in  other  nations  the  stones  were  often  hewn,  even 
in  quite  realistic  phallic  shapes. 


Fig.  204. — Towers,  pillars,  tombstones  and  menhirs  as  symbols  of  the  phallus. 

From  these  pillars  have  come  our  own  tombstones,  no  longer 
phallic  except  in  being  erect  stones  or  monuments;  and  also  our 
towers  and  steeples  of  various  shapes  and  sizes,  but  all  uncon- 
sciously retaining  the  upright  form  of  primitive  phallic  pillars. 
The  tower  of  St.  Vincent's  church  in  St.  Louis  was  originally 
quite  realistically  phallic,  but  after  the  cyclone  in  1896  destroyed 
the  old  steeple,  the  new  on»  was  not  quite  so  suggestive  of  the 
original  motive  of  all  steeples.  There  is  practically  no  part  of 
the  world  which  is  without  phallic  pillars  or  towers. 

The  phallus  was  also  symbolized  as  an  arrow,  the  two  barbs 
signifying  the  testicles. 

Man  literally  created  or  imagined  God  in  his  own  image;  the 


386  SEX  AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

penis  was  "Asher,"  the  powerful,  the  opener;  the  right  testicle 
was  called  "Ann"  or  "On,"  and  was  supposed  to  be  superior 
and  to  produce  male  offspring  (see  p.  144) ;  the  left  testicle  was 
called  "Hoa"  and  was  supposed  to  give  rise  to  female  offspring. 
Writers  have  given  various  reasons  why  the  right  testicle 
was  male ;  it  was  usually  larger  than  the  left  one ;  or  the  left  hung 
lower  and  was  therefore  inferior.  Neither  statement  is  univer- 
sally applicable  and  probably  neither  one  is  correct.  The  right 
side  of  tlie  body  was  male  in  antiquity,  as  we  learnt  in  the  old 


Fig.  205. — A  man  showing  hair  in  shape  of  upright  triangle  on  the  pubes. 

theories  of  the  Kabbalah,  the  Greek  theories  of  conception,  the 
two  series  of  the  Pythagorean  numbers :  Eight  and  Left,  Male  and 
Female  (see  p.  334),  etc. 

The  syllable  Ben  in  Hebrew  means  Son ;  thus,  Benaiah  means 
son  of  the  Lord.  We  read  in  the  thirty-fifth  chapter  of  Genesis 
(v.  16-20),  "And  they  (Jacob  and  his  people)  journeyed  from 
Bethel  and  Each  el  travailed,  and  she  had  hard  labor. 

And  it  came  to  pass  when  she  was  in  hard  labor  that  the  mid- 
wife said  unto  her,  Fear  not,  thou  shalt  have  this  son  also — 
and  it  came  to  pass  as  her  soul  was  in  departing  (for  she  died) 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  387 

that  she  called  his  name  Ben-Oni;  but  his  father  called  him  Ben- 
jamin. And  Kachel  died,  and  was  buried.  *  *  *  And  Jacob 
set  a  pillar  on  her  grave." 

The  name  Ben-Oni  means  son  of  On  (son  of  the  right  testi- 
cle) ;  the  name  Benjamin  means,  Son  of  the  right  side.  We  may 
recall  in  this  connection  the  importance  of  the  right  side  as  male 
in  connection  with  begetting  and  in  connection  with  the  theories 
about  the  womb.  Also,  this  quotation  shows  the  antiquity  of 
grave-stones,  to  which  reference  is  made  on  page  385. 

The  lingam  was  also  represented  by  a  very  sacred  form,  the 


Fig.  20G. — Symbols  derived  from  pubic  triangle  and  from  pliallus. 

pyramid  or  upright  triangle,  "tlie  sacred  male  triangle,"  with  its 
apex  upward,  derived  from  the  shape  of  the  pubic  hair  of  the  man, 
which  is  so  characteristically  different  from  the  pubic  hair  of 
the  woman  (Fig.  20G).  This  triangle  symbolized  the  Trinity 
among  the  most  ancient  people  of  whose  religion  we  have  record, 
the  Hindus,  and  probably  even  before  them,  among  their  Aryan 
ancestors;  so  also,  among  the  ancient  Egyptians,  and  as  I  shall 
presently  show,  also  among  modern  Christians. 

The  lingam  was  also  worshipped  in  the  shape  of  the  lotus 
flower  or  bud  in  India,  China,  Egypt  and  other  Oriental  coun- 


388  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

tries,  and  was  transplanted  from  these  Pagan  religions  to  Chris- 
tian art  as  the  lily  or  "fleur-de-lis;"  (the  lily  is  often  a  symbol 
of  God  the  Father  in  Christian  church  art,  where  the  Madonna 
and  child  and  lily  are  symbolical  of  the  "Holy  Family;"  or  the 

lily  is  conventionalized  in  paintings   ^/  and  in  sculpture     •§• 

also  as  the  thyrsus,  (the  Bacchus  sceptre  or  symbol)  or  bunch  of 
grapes,  or  as  a  pine-cone  or  pine-apple  (see  for  instance  the  pine- 
cone  in  the  hand  of  the  Assyrian  god  Ashur  (Fig.  181) ;  the 
lingam  is  also  shown  as  a  divining  rod,  a  two-forked  stick,  the 
stick  representing  the  penis,  the  two  forks  the  testicles;  or  as  a 


Fig.  207. — Temple  Dome  at  Srinugur;   capital  of  Cashmere  Valley,  India* 

clover  leaf  or  shamrock,  or  in  the  shape  of  the  Greek  and  Rus- 
sian orthodox  cross  with  three  cross-bars,  which  latter  is  also 
the  cross  of  the  pope  of  the  Roman  church,  and  was  already  in 
use  in  the  ancient  Egyptian  religious  symbolism,  and  on  the  lids 
of  sarcophagi. 

The  shamrock  is  an  Irish  emblem  of  the  Trinity ;  it  is  a  leaf  of 
any  one  of  several  three-lobed  varieties  of  plants  (Trifolium  pro- 
tense,  T.  repens,  or  other  clovers,  or  of  Oxalis,  or  water-cress). 
The  Irish  believe  that  St.  Patrick  used  a  leaf  of  this  kind  to  ex- 
plain the  Trinity — one  leaf  yet  three  leaflets.  On  St.  Patrick's 
day,  every  devout  Irishman  wears  a  little  bunch  of  shamrock. 

This  shows  the  dome  of  a  temple  in  Srinugur  (Fig.  207), 


SEX    AND   SEX    WORSHIP  389 

the  capital  of  Cashmere,  in  India.  It  represents  the  three  mem- 
bers of  the  phallic  trinity.  This  form  is  also  occasionally  seen 
in  church  windows,  built  in  triplets,  with  the  middle  section  long- 
est; its  origin  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  dome. 

Such  windows  can  be  seen  in  a  church  on  South  Grand  Ave- 
nue in  St.  Louis ;  a  sketch  of  such  windows  is  shown  below : 


In  the  forests  of  India  there  are  many  shrines  with  realis- 
tic figures  of  the  lingam  to  which  sterile  women  make  pilgrimages 
that  they  may  touch  these  holy  images  with  their  vulvas,  in  the 
hope  that  they  may  then  conceive.  Some  Hindu  sects  teach  that  a 
woman  who  dies  a  virgin  can  not  enter  heaven;  if  a  girl  is  pre- 
vented from  having  connection  with  a  man,  as  when  a  man  dies 
and  leaves  a  child  widow  (for  girls  are  married  when  three  to 
six  years  old,  and  a  widow  can  not  remarry),  such  a  widow  goes 
to  a  shrine  and  with  a  sacred  stone  phallus  or  lingam  ruptures 
her  hymen,  so  that  the  angel  guarding  the  gates  of  heaven,  when 
he  examines  her,  will  find  that  she  has  done  her  duty  in  regard  to 
coition  and  will  let  her  in. 

Medals  and  jewelry  in  the  form  of  the  lingam  were  worn  by 
Greek  and  Roman  matrons  and  maidens,  to  make  them  fertile; 
similar  charms  are  frequently  worn  as  amulets  in  modern  Egypt. 
In  some  parts  of  Europe  cakes  in  the  form  of  the  male  organs 
are  eaten  by  the  women  on  certain  festival  days  for  the  same 
purpose.  Pregnant  women  wore  images  of  the  male  organ,  in 
the  hope  that  the  frequent  sight  of  them  might  produce  boy  chil- 
dren by  pre-natal  suggestion  or  influence;  or  they  had  pretty 
little  naked  boy  slaves  to  wait  on  them.  (See  Fig.  207-A.) 

In  the  XIII  and  XIV  Centuries  the  Abbey  church  of  Cou- 
lombs, Diocese  Chartres,  France,  claimed  to  possess  the  prepuce 
or  foreskin  of  Jesus,  which  had  been  cut  off  when  he  was  circum- 
cised, and  it  was  believed  that  when  a  pregnant  woman  touched 
this  relic,  she  was  assured  of  a  safe  and  easy  confinement. 
Henry  V  of  England  borrowed  this  relic  in  order  that  his  wife 
Katherine  might  touch  it,  after  which  he  returned  it  to  the  abbey. 

We  have  already  learned  that  the  main  deities  of  India  are  a 
Trinity  of  Brahma  the  Creator,  Vishnu  the  Preserver,  and  Siva 


390 


SEX  AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


the  Destroyer  (and  Reproducer) ;  these  three  corresponded  to 
the  Greek  and  Roman  Female  Trinity  of  the  Parcae  or  Fates, 
and  to  the  Scandinavian  Trinity  of  the  Norns.  The  Parcae  presided 
over  the  destinies  of  humans;  Clotho,  the  spinner  (Past),  presided 
over  birth  and  spun  the  thread  of  life;  Lachesis,  the  weaver  (Pres- 
ent) weaves  flowers,  or  laurels,  or  thorns  into  the  fabric  of  life; 
and  Atropos,  the  "Inevitable"  (Future)  cuts  the  thread  of  life 
when  the  span  of  life  is  run  (Fig.  208).  The  Egyptians  wor- 
shipped quite  a  number  of  deities  in  sets  of  three,  some  male 
only,  others  in  sets  of  father,  mother  and  child;  for  example, 
Osiris,  Isis  and  Harpokrat.  In  Egyptian  hieroglyphics  "father, 
mother  and  child"  was  written  thus: 


Up  to  the  Second  Century  Christianity  was  a  monotheistic  re- 
ligion, like  that  of  the  Jews;  but  about  the  time  mentioned  the 
Bishop  of  Alexandria  introduced  first  the  worship  of  the  Father 
and  Son,  then  of  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost,  or  the  Trinity,  to 


Fig.  207-A. — Abraxas  Medals;   used  as  charms  against  disease.     No.  IV  is  a  phallic 
charm,  the  god  Pan,  to  euro  or  prevent  sterility. 

facilitate  proselytism  among  the  Egyptians,  and  by  the  end  of  the 
Fifth  Century,  the  theory  of  a  triune  God  was  accepted  also  by 
the  other  churches  outside  of  Egypt. 

The  illustration  (Fig.  209)  shows  a  very  anthropomorphic  con- 
ception of  the  Trinity  which  originated  among  the  monks  of  Sa- 
lerno, whither  the  idea  had  probably  been  brought  by  some  mis- 
sionaries returned  from  India  in  imitation  of  the  Hindu  Trimurti, 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


391 


in  the  XIII  Century.  This  same  form  of  Trinity  was  found  as  an 
altar  piece  in  Catholic  churches  in  the  Philippines,  when  the 
United  States  acquired  them  from  Spain. 

Images  of  the  fructifying  god  Pan  (see  page  355),  or  Priapus, 
were  erected  in  the  fields  of  ancient  Hellas  and  Rome  to  insure 
increase  in  crops,  flocks  and  family.  Such  figures  were  usually 
pillars,  but  often  with  a  head,  or  a  figure  of  a  phallus  in  front; 
Figure  210  shows  a  youthful  couple  offering  flower  wreaths  to 
Pan,  with  their  petitions  for  offspring.  A  figure  of  a  sitting  Pri- 


Fig.  208. — "The  Parcae,  or  Fates,"  by 
Thumann. 


Fig.  209. — The   Trinity,   invented   at   Sa- 
lerno,  in   the    XIII   Century. 


apus,  with  an  erect  penis,  was  kept  in  the  temples,  to  which  pros- 
pective brides  were  taken  by  the  priestesses  who  explained  to 
them  the  sexual  functions  of  the  man's  parts.  The  brides  usually 
sat  on  the  lap  of  the  naked  god,  with  his  organ  introduced  into 
'their  vaginas,  thus  rupturing  their  hymens  as  an  offering  to  the 
deity.  From  the  permanent  rigidity  or  erection  of  the  god's  penis 
we  have  the  medical  term  of  priapism. 

In  Egyptian  temples  the  walls  were  much  thicker  below  than 
above;  the  sides  of  the  doors,  or  entrances,  were  therefore  of  an 


392 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


irregular  shape,  more  or  less  trapezoid;  the  sides  were  narrowest 
above  and  wider  toward  the  bottom.  The  sides  of  the  temple 
entrances  were  usually  heavily  decorated  with  sculptures,  but  the 
space  is  often  divided  into  two  or  more  panels.  Here  we  see  a 


Fig.  210. — "Offering  to  Pan,"  from  a  painting. 


Fig.  211. — Menephtha  offering  to  Seti,  same  as  212,  but  realistically  represented. 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


393 


panel  from  such  a  temple  entrance  at  Karnak,  representing  the 
Pharaoh  Menephtha  offering  libations  to  Seti,  who  was  the  Egyp- 
tian " Giver  of  Life."  This  divinity  is  here  represented  in  re- 
alistic form,  and  the  object  of  worship — the  phallus,  is  boldly 
shown  (Fig.  211) ;  on  another  panel  in  the  same  entrance  the 
same  thing  is  shown,  but  the  realistic  phallus  is  replaced  by  the 
"Uas  sceptre,"  a  symbolic  representation  of  the  phallus,  the 
parts  resembling  the  arrow  or  the  divining  rod  in  their  signifi- 


Fig.  212. — Menephtha  offering  to  Seti,  symbolical. 


Fig.  213. — Pyramid  of  Chaeops  and  Sphinx,  Egypt. 


394 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


cance  (Fig.  212).  Male  deities  in  Egyptian  temples  are  often 
indicated  by  carrying  this  uas  in  their  hands,  but  frequently  they 
held  their  real  organs  in  their  hands. 

The  pyramids  of  Egypt  were  gigantic  symbols  of  Seti,  the 
Creator.  I  have  already  explained  the  origin  of  this  symbol,  the 
sacred  male  triangle,  as  based  on  the  shape  of  the  hairy  triangle 
on  a  man's  pubes.  It  was  not  confined  to  the  wonderful  edifices, 
which  served  as  the  tombs  for  the  Pharaohs  who  erected  them. 
Chaeops,  who  built  this  pyramid,  lived  about  3050  B.C.  The  pyr- 
amid is  480  feet  high  and  764  feet  square  at  the  base.  Some 


Fig.  214. — Two  genii  guarding  a  tomb,  Gizeh,  Egypt. 

authors  have  surmised  that  it  was  at  first  intended  as  a  tomb  for 
an  Apis  bull  (Fig.  213). 

Figure  214  shows  the  entrance  to  one  of  the  Egyptian  tombs, 
where  two  genii  or  guardian  deities  or  angels  hold  this  triangle 
figure  of  God  before  themselves  in  place  where  the  real  organs 
would  be,  had  they  been  represented  realistically. 

Ruskin  criticised  this  triangle  (Fig.  215)  from  a  medieval 
Christian  church;  he  says  that  Gothic  art  was  so  crude  that  it 
represented  an  angel  in  this  image,  with  a  face  so  imperfect  that 
the  mouth  was  forgotten.  Ruskin  did  not  know,  apparently,  that 
this  was  the  sacred  male  triangle,  and  that  what  he  mistook  for 
eyes  and  nose  was  really  the  "lingam  and  stones."  Or  if  he 
did  know,  he  did  not  wish  to  state  the  truth. 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


395 


In  the  "Welt-Gemaelde-Gallerie,"  a  work  already  referred 
to,  we  find  a  copper-plate  cut  of  God  appearing  to  Moses  in  the 
burning  bush  (Fig.  216).  This  male  triangle  represents  the  male 
god  Jehovah.  We  shall  have  occasion  to  see  several  other  cuts 
from  this  same  work. 

The  ' * Kurf uersten-Bibel' '  is  a  translation  of  the  Bible  by 
Martin  Luther,  and  is  so  called  because  in  the  front  part  of  the 
book  are  the  likenesses  of  the  dukes  who  assisted  Luther  in  the 
work  of  the  Reformation.  It  is  a  very  large  book,  weighs  about 
30  or  40  pounds,  and  is  curiously  illustrated  with  fine  copper- 
plate illustrations  (publ.  in  1768). 


Fig.  2l~). — A  Gothic  male  triangle. 


Fig.  216. — God  appearing  to  Moses  in  the 
burning  bush. 


I  show  in  Fig.  217  a  reproduction  of  the  title  page.  Note 
here  the  upright  triangle  or  pyramid,  immediately  over  the  head- 
ing "Biblia;"  above  this  on  the. base  of  the  cornice  occur  the  head 
of  an  angel — St.  Matthew ;  the  head  of  a  lion — St.  Mark ;  the  head 
of  a  bull — St.  Luke;  and  the  head  of  an  eagle — St.  John. 

The  man  on  the  left  is  Moses,  with  the  two  tablets  of  stone, 
pointing  to  Jesus  on  the  right,  to  symbolize  that  the  Old  Testament 
was  a  precursor  of  Christ  who  was  the  fulfillment  of  the  proph- 
ecies of  the  Old  Testament,  the  Law  and  the  Prophets. 

Christ  is  represented  naked,  as  he  was  the  "man  without  sin," 
therefore  represented  without  the  insignia  of  sin — clothing. 


396 


SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 


On  the  base  of  the  structure,  on  the  left,  is  the  Agnus  Dei,  or 
Lamb  of  God,  a  lamb  tied  ready  for  slaughter  and  sacrifice,  which 
symbolizes  Jesus  offered  for  the  sins  of  humanity;  and  to  the 
right,  the  cup  and  plate  of  the  Eucharist,  the  symbolical  sacrifice 
of  Jesus  in  the  New  Testament  dispensation.  Most  of  these  dif- 
ferent symbols  point  to  a  phallic  origin. 

Figure  218  is  an  illustration  of  God  appearing  to  Moses  on 
Mt.  Nebo,  delivering  the  tablets  of  the  Ten  Commandments  to 
Moses.  The  sacred  male  triangle  represents  the  God  Jehovah. 
Among  the  ancient  Jews  it  was  forbidden  to  make  images  to  be 


Fig.  217. — Title    .page     of     the 
f  uersten-Bdbel. ' ' 


:Kur- 


Fig.  218. — God    appearing    to    Moses    on 
Mount  Nebo. 


worshipped.  "Thou  shalt  not  make  unto  thee  any  graven  image, 
or  any  likeness  of  anything  that  is  in  heaven  above,  or  that  is 
in  the  earth  beneath,  or  that  is  in  the  water  under  the  earth.  Thou 
shalt  not  bow  down  thyself  to  them,  nor  serve  them  *  *  *" 
(Exod.  xx,  4-5). 

This  commandment  has  been  kept  by  the  ancient  Israelites, 
and  still  more  strictly  by  the  Mohammedans;  the  latter  take  the 
fourth  verse  of  this  quotation  out  of  its  context,  prohibiting  the 
worship  of  all  such  images,  and  they  prohibit  the  making  of  im- 
ages, even  as  portraits  or  works  of  art,  so  that  a  rich  Turk,  in- 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


397 


stead  of  having  marble  or  bronze  statues  of  nymphs,  will  prob- 
ably keep  pretty  naked  Georgian  or  Circassian  slave  girls  to  orna- 
ment his  house. 

So  God  was  represented  by  symbols  and  not  by  images,  and 
this  triangle  was  a  favorite  method  of  figuring  God. 

The  "Kurfuersten-Bibel"  also  has  this  illustration  (Fig.  219) 
of  the  V  Chapter  of  the  Apocalypse  of  St.  John;  and  the  halo 
above  the  head  of  God  is  a  male  triangle  or  pyramid. 

Likewise,  this  same  triangle  is  used  as  a  halo  for  God  in  this 


Fig.  219. — God  and  halo ;  also  Saints 
Matthew,  Mark,  Luke  and  John,  and  the 
Agnus  Dei. 


Fig.  220. — A  modern  picture  of  a  mass; 
God  with  triangular  halo. 


copy  (Fig.  220)  of  a  modern  print  representing  the  liberation  of 
a  soul  from  purgatory  in  answer  to  masses  said  for  the  repose  of 
the  souls  of  the  dead. 

In  medieval  Christian  church  art  a  modification  of  the  tri- 
angle was  used  to  represent  the  Trinity  (Fig.  221).  The  mean- 
ing of  the  male  and  female  triangles  seerns  to  have  been  somewhat 
hazy  and  the  female  triangle  was  sometimes  used  for  the  male 
trinity.  Sometimes  the  two  lower  side  limbs  of  this  triangle 


398 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


were  curved  outward,  giving  the  design  the  shape  of  a  heraldic 
escutcheon.  "Est"  means  is  and  non  est  means  is  not;  "pater" 
is  father,  "filius"  is  son,  and  " sanctus  spiritus"  is  holy  ghost; 
and  the  Avord  deus  means  God.  A  slightly  different  form  of  it 
can  be  seen  in  a  stained  window  in  Christ  Church  Cathedral, 
Episcopal,  in  St.  Louis. 

Yet  another  use  of  the  triangle  (but  the  feminine  or  inverted 
pyramid,  probably  due  to  ignorance  on  the  part  of  those  who  de- 
termined on  its  use)  is  that  which  symbolizes  the  war  work  of 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  It  carries  on  its  three  faces  the  description  of 
Plato,  of  the  triune  nature  of  man;  Plato  taught  that  man  con- 


Fig.  221. — The    Trinity.      A   medieval    design, 
but  still  in  use. 


Fig.  222. — The  upper  is  the 
feminine  triangle  as  used  by  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A. ;  the  lower,  as  used  by 
the  Y.  W.  C.  A. 


sisted  of  body,  mind  and  spirit.  It  is  of  course  possible  that  the 
female  triangle  was  designedly  chosen  to  symbolize  that  our  sol- 
diers went  to  war  in  defence  of  the  holiest  object,  pure  woman- 
hood, against  the  brutal  attacks  and  misuses  of  the  enemies  (Fig. 
222).  In  the  triangle  used  by  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  for  their  war- work 
the  shape  is  correct — feminine. 

This  (Fig.  223)  represents  a  Cupid  (Amor  or  Eros)  teasing 
a  nymph;  it  is  entitled  "Love  Resisted."  The  God  of  Love, 
Cupid,  is  usually  represented  with  a  bow  and  arrow,  or  a  quiver 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP 


399 


full  of  arrows,  which  are  symbols  of  the  lingam,  erect  from  law- 
ful or  conjugal  love.  (See  also  Fig.  35.) 

This  idea  is  also  found  in  the  art  of  India  (Fig.  224),  where 
the  God  of  Love,  Kama-Deva,  is  represented  as  shooting  an  ar- 
row made  of  a  lotus  bud,  the  latter  a  symbol  of  the  masculine  organ 
or  lingam,  as  already  explained.  The  bow  is  supposed  to  be  made 
of  sugar  cane.  The  god  is  sometimes  figured  as  riding  on  a  dove, 
or  on  a  sparrow;  both  emblematic  of  much  coitional  ability. 

Dionysus,  or  Bacchus,  the  God  of  Wine,  Drunkenness  and 


Fig.  22.°,.— " Love  Resisted;"   the  arrow 
is  a  symbol  of  the  lingam. 


Fig.  22-1.— The   Hindu    god    of    love. 


Debauchery,  was  worshipped  in  ancient  Greece  and  Rome,  and 
the  rites  on  his  festival  days  were  accompanied  by  unbridled  sex- 
ual excesses.  The  Dionysus'  sceptre  was  a  staff  surmounted  by  a 
figure  resembling  a  bunch  of  grapes  (the  latter  is  called  in  botany 
a  "thyrsus")  and  is  kno\vn  as  the  thyrsus  sceptre  (Fig.  225) ;  the 
figure  is  not  very  definitely  represented  and  may  resemble  a  pine- 
cone  or  a  pine-apple.  This  symbol  represents  the  penis  erect 
under  the  influence  of  illicit  love,  or  passion,  or  lust ;  it  is  a  very 
frequent  ornament  on  the  roofs  of  Christian  churches,  such  as 
St.  Peter's  at  Rome,  etc. 


400 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


This  illustration  is  from  a  modern  painting,  and  figuratively 
represents  a  girl  playing  with  the  lingam  of  a  man  (Fig.  226). 

Figure  227  is  an  artistic  representation  of  the  conflict  that  goes 
on  in  a  man's  mind,  between  lawful  love  and  illicit  passion  or 
lust;  the  arrow  of  Eros  is  the  symbol  of  the  lingam  erect  under 
influence  of  lawful  love,  while  the  staff  held  by  the  Bacchante,  or 
priestess  of  Bacchus,  is  the  symbol  of  a  lingam  erect  under  the 
excitement  of  lustful  desires.  From  Eros,  the  Greek  name  of  the 
god  of  love,  we  have  such  terms  as  erotic,  and  from  Amor,  his 


Fig.  225. — A   Faun   and   Nymph,  playing 
with    a    Dionvsus   rod. 


Fig.  226. — Girl   playing  with  a  Dionysus 
rod. 


Roman  name,  such  words,  as  amorous,  and  all  other  words  which 
are  derived  from  these  word-stems. 

The  Temptation  of  St.  Anthony  (Fig.  228)  is  a  popular  sub- 
ject for  illustration  by  modern  artists.  St.  Anthony  was  a  very 
holy  man,  a  celibate  recluse,  but  a  preacher  of  Christianity  to 
multitudes  who  flocked  to  visit  and  hear  him.  His  sanctity  and 
his  continence  were  above  reproach. 

To  undermine  the  influence  of  this  holy  man,  some  heathen 
men  tried  to  have  him  seduced  and  then  to  expose  him,  caught  in 
flagrante.  When  the  beautiful  courtesan  who  was  hired  to  bring 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


401 


this  about,  tried  her  seductive  wiles  upon  him,  to  avoid  succumb- 
ing to  the  temptation  the  saint  bit  off  the  end  of  his  tongue  that 
the  pain  might  divert  his  thoughts  from  the  lovely  vision  before 
him,  and  from  the  carnal  desires  she  inspired.  It  is  but  fair  to 
say,  that  the  story  is  considered  to  be  merely  an  allegory  of  the 
"memory  pictures"  which  troubled  him  in  his  dreams,  while  the 
probable  explanation  is,  that  the  whole  story  belongs  in  the  same 
category  as  the  story  of  William  Tell  and  the  apple,  and  George 
Washington  and  the  cherry  tree — historical  fakes. 


Fig.  227.— Amor  and  Bacchante,  by  Les-      Fig.  228.— Temptation    of    St.    Anthony, 
sing. 


Menander,  a  pre-Christian  Gnostic,  said:  "Of  all  wild  beasts 
on  earth  or  in  the  sea,  the  greatest  is  a  woman."  Many  of  the 
early  church-fathers  held  similar  views,  and  the  early  saints 
taught  that  woman  was  unholy  and  made  as  a  temptation  to  man, 
and  that  she  was  to  be  shunned  at  all  times  as  one  would  shun 
sin  and  evil.  Even  St.  Paul  said:  "It  is  good  for  a  man  not  to 
touch  a  woman"  (I  Cor.  vii,  1).  Sexual  connection  was  the  great- 
est of  all  sins. 


402  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

The  poet  Granville  wrote: 

"Mankind,  from  Adam,  have  been  women's  fools; 
Women,  from  Eve,  have  been  the  Devil's  tools; 
Heaven  might  have  spared  one  torment  when  we  fell ; 
Not  left  us  women,  or  not  threatened  hell." 

And  Milton  sighs  in  Paradise  Lost: 

"Oh,  why  did  God  create  at  last 
This  novelty  on  earth;  this  fair  defect 
Of  nature,  and  not  fill  the  world  at  once 
With  men  as  angels,  without  feminine ! ' ' 

When  Christianity  came,  and  in  fact  even  long  before  then, 
many  ascetic  men  thought  that  the  greatest  merit  was  to  abstain 
from  those  things  that  were  most  pleasant,  and  as  the  most  cher- 
ished indulgence  was  sexual  congress  with  women,  these  fanatics 
swore  off  this  indulgence  altogether,  even  going  so  far  as  to  try  to 
subdue  all  desire  by  fasting,  self-castigation  and  self-denials  of  all 
kinds,  as  is  still  the  case  in  some  of  our  modern  religious  celibate 
orders;  and  if  these  measures  did  not  succeed  in  deadening  all 
desire  for  woman,  these  men  did  not  hesitate  to  castrate  them- 
selves, as  has  already  been  related  of  Origen  and  the  Skopsi, 
in  order  the  more  surely  to  escape  all  temptation,  in  obedience 
to  the  command  in  the  Bible :  ' '  But  I  say  unto  you :  That  whoso- 
ever looketh  on  a  woman  to  lust  after  her,  hath  committed  adul- 
tery with  her  already  in  his  heart.  And  if  thy  right  eye  offend 
thee  pluck  it  out  and  cast  it  from  thee :  for  it  is  profitable  for  thee 
that  one  of  thy  members  should  perish  and  not  that  thy  whole  body 
should  be  cast  into  hell." 

To  show  that  St.  Anthony  was  not  such  a  self-mutilated 
fanatic,  or  anchorite,  but  subject  to  the  ordinary  temptations  of 
the  flesh,  the  medieval  artists  affixed  the  T-shaped  symbol  of  the 
lingam  to  the  regalia  of  the  saint,  as  in  this  woodcut  of  about 
A.D.  1525,  by  von  Leyden.  In  this  illustration  the  woman  tempt- 
ress was  the  devil  in  disguise,  as  shown  by  the  horns,  and  that 
she  was  not  a  chaste  woman  is  implied  by  her  pregnant  belly. 
Medieval  art  was  often  coarse  and  crude  in  expressing  itself, 
but  it  generally  succeeded  in  making  itself  plainly  understood 
(Fig.  229). 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP 


403 


This  same  idea  was  also  expressed  in  an  altar-piece,  at  Wei- 
mar, in  which  the  staff  is  surmounted  by  the  tau  cross,  which  on 
this  account  is  also  known  as  the  "St.  Anthony's  Cross." 

This  T-shaped  cross  was  the  shape  of  the  cross  used  by  the 
ancients  for  crucifixion.  The  projection  above  the  head  of  Jesus 
was  not  part  of  the  cross,  but  a  label  on  which  was  the  derisive 
inscription:  "Jesus  Nazarenus,  Rex  Judaeorum"  (I.  N.  E.  L). 

In  earlier  Christian  architecture  this  was  also  the  form  of 
the  ground-plan  of  churches  and  cathedrals,  just  as  at  present 
the  four-limbed  or  Latin  cross  is  used. 


Fig.  229.— •"  Temptation  of  St.  Anthony,"  by  Von  Leyden. 

The  origin  of  the  latter  kind  of  cross  is  sought  in  a  figure  of 
a  staff  (the  erect  lingam)  surrounded  by  a  ring  (yoni)  or  circle, 
as  still  used  in  many  tombstones  in  Turkish  cemeteries,  or  as 
shown  in  the  cut  below : 


Here  (Fig.  230)  is  a  picture  which  shows  the'same  combina- 
tion of  staff  (lingam)  and  ring  (yoni)  and  therefore  signifies 
coition  or  the  two  sexes  in  union.  This  explains  the  meaning  of 
what  Ruskin  said  of  these  two  crosses;  he  said  the  tau  cross  was 


404 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


the  "cross  of  suffering"  (the  male  unsatisfied  by  woman),  and 
the  Latin  cross  was  the  "cross  of  triumph"  (the  male  satisfied 
by  union  with  woman). 

We  have  already  learned  that  the  ancient  Aztecs  or  Quiches 
were  acquainted  with  representations  of  the  crucifixion  and  that 
the  cross  was  a  sacred  symbol  in  Yucatan.  Fig.  8  on  page  33 
was  a  mould  cut  in  stone;  copies  were  made  in  relief  by  taking 
impressions  in  moist  clay  and  then  drying  in  the  sun,  as  is  done 
in  Central  America  to  this  day  with  their  statuettes  of  adobe. 
When  the  first  Spaniards  discovered  America  they  found  this 
figure  in  use  in  religious  worship. 


Fig.  230. — Fresco  by  Fra  Angelico  da  Fiesole,  S.  Marco,  Florence. 


The  Trinity 

The  earliest  form  of  religion  in  Babylonia  appears  to  have 
been  a  sort  of  fetichism,  or  Shamanism,  which  was  similar  to 
that  which  is  still  believed  in  by  the  Samoyeds  and  the  subarctic 
tribes  of  Siberia.  According  to  this  belief  the  world  swarmed 
with  spirits  or  demons,  to  which  diseases  and  disasters  were  due 
and  against  which  protection  was  sought  in  various  mascots  and 
charms.  The  cherubs,  the  winged  bulls  and  other  creatures  of  that 
kind,  which  guarded  the  entrances,  doors  or  windows  to  the 
houses,  were  charms  used  to  protect  against  these  demoniac  agen- 
cies, just  like  we  ourselves  use  such  charms  on  our  own  churches 
and  houses  (Fig.  231). 

The  introduction  of  sex  worship  and  of  sex  symbols  was  a 
later  development,  not  only  in  Babylon,  but  in  probably  all  reli- 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


405 


gions  which  adopted  such  ideas.  The  phallic  worship  was  intro- 
duced from  barbarous  people,  as  for  instance  from  Accadia, 
Phoenicia,  etc.,  and  although  some  authors  speak  of  it  as  incul- 
cating noble  ideas  and  " divine  acts,"  such  was  not  really  the 
case,  but  phallic  worship  and  especially  phallic  festivals  every- 
where seem  to  have  been  a  degeneration  from  these  forms  of 
religion. 

In  Asia  Minor  several  people  worshipped  Asher,  Ami  and 
Hoa  (page  383),  which  personified  or  symbolized  the  penis,  and 
the  right  and  the  left  testicles.  This  was  probably  the  first  "trin- 
ity" that  was  worshipped  anywhere,  and  from  this  were  derived 


o  III  o  III  o  III', 

,     ,,     /  . 

n*Cnt.  Off  fin  , 


i          . 

-<  ^  > 


Fig.  231.  —  Phallic  symbols  still  used  on  our  houses. 

other  forms  of  trinities,  not  so  distinctly  or  coarsely  sexual. 

In  Babylon,  in  quite  early  times,  they  worshipped  a  trinity 
consisting  of  "Na,"  the  sky,  "Ea,"  the  earth,  and  "Mulge,"  the 
underworld.  The  underworld  of  those  days,  however,  was  not 
yet  the  "hell"  of  more  modern  religions,  but  more  like  the  "ha- 
des" of  the  Greeks,  as  will  be  explained  later  on. 

The  ancient  Egyptians  believed  in  a  Supreme  Being  at  once 
father  and  mother  (similar  to  the  hermaphrodite  gods  already 
considered)  ;  from  this  idea  originated  the  worship  of  deities  in 
triads  —  father,  mother,  and  son:  Osiris,  Isis  and  Harpokrat,  for 
instance. 

The  Egyptian  religion  extended  over  a  period  of  more  than 


406  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

5000  years  during  which  it  underwent  many  changes;  also,  dif- 
ferent districts  or  provinces,  or  even  cities,  had  different  cults 
and  different  dialects,  so  that  the  names  of  the  gods  and  goddesses 
seem  dissimilar  although  they  may  well  have  meant  the  same  dei- 
ties. The  result  is  a  great  confusion  in  formulating  in  our  times 
a  consistent  theory  of  Egyptian  mythology  or  religion.  Yet  we 
know  that  many  deities  were  worshipped  in  sets  of  three,  three 
being  a  sacred  number. 

Only  Osiris  (father),  Isis  (mother)  and  Horus  or  Harpokrat 
(son)  were  worshipped  in  every  part  of  Egypt.  Pta  or  Phtah 
was  also  generally  considered  to  be  the  actual  creator  or  demi- 
urge. Thoth  assisted  Osiris  in  judging  the  souls  of  the  dead,  and 
he  had  a  wife,  vMa-t,  the  goddess  of  truth;  they  were  worshipped 
as  a  couple.  Ka  was  the  Supreme  God. 

Then  there  were  various  triads,  whose  worship  was  local; 
we  will  consider  them  in  a  tabulated  list: 


FATHER: 

MOTHER  : 

CHILD  : 

TERRITORY  : 

Amen-ra, 

Mut, 

Khnus  $ 

Thebes 

Ptah, 

Pakht  or  Sekhet, 

Imhoten    $ 

Memphis 

Haruer, 

Tasen-nefert, 

Pnebto-pkhrut    $ 

Ombos 

Sebek, 

Hathor, 

Khnus    $ 

Ombos 

Num, 

Sati, 

Ankt    ? 

Nubia 

Num, 

Nebout, 

Harp-pkhrut, 

Latapolis 

Munt, 

Rata 

Har-pkhrat, 

Hermonthis, 

Osiris,  Isis,  Horus,    $  All  Egypt. 

These  were  the  "Holy  Families"  of  Egypt;  they  were  wor- 
shipped more  devoutly  than  the  other  deities,  and  their  influence 
on  more  modern  ideas  and  religions  will  become  apparent  far- 
ther on. 

It  is  not  necessary  here  to  consider  the  other  deities,  although 
some  had  very  distinct  sexual  significance,  as  for  instance  Suben, 
goddess  of  maternity,  etc. 

The  ancient  Phoenicians  worshipped  as  a  triad  or  Trinity, 
the  Sun,  Moon  and  Earth.  The  Greeks  and  Romans  had  the  triad 
of  the  Fates  or  Parcae,  already  considered  (p.  390),  who  sym- 
bolized Past,  Present  and  Future.  The  Norsemen  or  Scandina- 
vians had  a  similar  triad;  they  were  three  maidens,  Urd,  Ver- 
dandi  and  Skuld,  who  also  symbolized  Past,  Present  and  Future; 
they  sat  under  the  Iggdrasil  tree  in  Asgard  and  determined  the 
fates  of  gods  and  men.  The  Trimurti,  or  Hindu  Trinity,  was  an 


SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP  407 

inseparable  trinity  of  Brahma  (middle),  Vishnu  (right),  and 
Siva  (left).  The  syllable  Om  is  the  symbol  for  this  trinity,  which 
lias  already  been  described  on  page  9.  It  is  explained  that  the 
letter  0  is  a  combination  (or  intermediate  sound)  of  the  vowels 
a  and  u  =  0.  A  stands  for  Brahma,  U*  for  Vishnu,  and  M  for 
Siva.  This  trinity  in  India  is  however  mainly  the  object  of  phil- 
osophical belief,  for  the  masses  worship  Siva  alone. 

The  Padma  Purana  (a  sacred  book)  says:  ''In  the  beginning 
of  Creation  the  great  Vishnu,  desirous  of  creating  the  world, 
produced  from  the  right  side  of  his  body  himself  as  Brahma; 
then  in  order  to  preserve  the  world  he  produced  from  the  left  side 
of  his  body  Vishnu;  and  in  order  to  destroy  the  world  he  pro- 
duced from  the  middle  of  his  body  the  eternal  Siva.  "Some  wor- 
ship Brahma,  others  Vishnu,  others  Siva;  but  Vishnu,  one,  yet 
threefold,  creates,  preserves  and  destroys ;  therefore,  let  the  pious 
make  no  distinction  between  the  three." 

The  conception  of  Siva  was  evolved  from  Indra,  the  god  of 
the  raging  storm,  for  which  reason  Siva  is  usually  represented 
dark  blue,  of  the  color  of  the  storm-cloud. 

In  India  the  male  triangle  is  sometimes  used  as  a  symbol 
for  this  trinity. 

In  ancient  Mexico  and  Central  America  a  trinity  was  also 
worshipped:  Tohil,  the  thunder;  Avihix,  lightning;  and  Gagavitz, 
the  thunderbolt. 

The  Bible  does  not  contain  the  word  "Trinity;"  but  the  early 
Christians  commenced  at  an  early  period  to  philosophize  about  it, 
and  God  the  Father,  God  the  Son  and  God  the  Holy  Ghost  were 
accepted  as  members  of  this  triad.  The  idea  of  God  the  Father 
was  the  old  Biblical  god  of  the  Jews ;  in  the  year  325  the  Coun- 
cil of  Nice  affirmed  the  divinity  of  Jesus  as  Christ,  and  in  the 
year  381  the  Council  of  Constantinople  added  the  doctrine  of  the 
divinity  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  From  this  the  theory  of  the  Trinity 
was  deduced,  which  is  that  these  three  are  not  separate  but  to- 
gether constitute  only  one  God — or  Unity.  The  Trinity  in  Unity 
was  dec-lared  to  be  an  article  of  faith  by  the  Church.  One  sect 
of  Christians,  however,  maintained  for  some  time  a  belief  in  Tri- 
theis/n,  or  in  Three  Gods,  separate  one  from  another,  like  an 
Egyptian  triad. 

*In  old  alphabets  u  and  v  were  alike  in  shape. 


408  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

After  the  Eeformation  of  Luther,  Unitarianism  became  com- 
mon ;  this  sect  believes  that  God  the  Father  is  the  only  and  a  uni- 
personal  God,  as  opposed  to  Trinitarianism,  or  the  belief  in  the 
Trinity. 

In  ecclesiastical  art  and  symbolism,  a  representation  of  the 
trinity  was  common,  in  the  form  of  the  sacred  triangle  (see 
p.  398). 

About  the  year  400,  Arius  taught  that  there  was  a  time  when, 
from  the  very  nature  of  son-ship,  the  son  did  not  exist,  because  a 
father  must  be  older  than  his  son.  But  the  Church,  at  the  Coun- 
cil of  Nicaea,  decreed  that  those  who  say  that  there  was  a  time 
when  the  Son  of  God  was  not,  and  that  before  he  was  begotten  he 
was  not,  and  that  he  was  made  out  of  nothing  and  is  created,  or 
changeable  or  alterable,  be  cursed  or  anathematized.  This  estab- 
lished the  Trinity  as  an  article  of  faith. 

The  Sabellians,  a  Christian  sect,  taught  that  the  Trinity  was 
to  be  understood  as  meaning  three  manifestations  or  attributes 
of  the  same  god;  in  other  words,  the  Sabellian  god  was  formu- 
lated in  the  shape  of  man  as  denned  by  the  Greek  philosopher 
Plato,  who  taught  that  man  consisted  of  body,  soul  and  spirit; 
the  Greeks  thought  that  Mother  Earth  gave  man  his  body,  the 
moon  gave  him  the  soul,  and  the  sun  the  spirit. 

But  it  seems  likely,  that  if  human  thought  had  not  been  so 
thoroughly  imbued  with  the  trinity  of  the  phallus,  the  other  triads 
and  the  trinity  might  never  have  been  considered  or  evolved  at  all. 
The  phallus  was  a  trinity,  acting  as  one  impregnating  unit,  al- 
though composed  of  three  separate  and  differently-functioned 
parts. 

PLANT  WORSHIP 

The  worship  of  trees  was  prevalent  in  ancient  times,  as  is 
learned  from  the  frequent  mention  of  "groves"  in  the  Bible. 
The  trees,  however,  were  symbols,  both  of  male  and  of  female 
qualities,  in  different  countries  and  among  different  people.  The 
worship  was  not  as  important  as  that  of  animals,  anthropomor- 
phic gods  and  goddesses,  and  natural  objects,  as  sun,  moon  and 
planets ;  in  our  times  the  festival  of  the  May-pole  and  the  Christ- 
mas tree  are  survivals  of  ancient  Pagan  tree-worship. 

Prior  to  the  V  Century,  Christmas  was  not  a  Christian  fes- 


SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP  409 

tival;  instead,  the  25th  of  March  was  celebrated  as  the  anniver- 
sary of  the  Annunciation,  or  the  Conception,  by  Mary;  this  day 
was  also  called  Lady  Day  in  some  parts  of  Europe,  where  Our 
Lady,  etc.,  are  also  terms  often  applied  to  Mary.  But  in  the 
V  Century  this  festival  was  made  less  important,  and  the  birth 
of  Jesus,  nine  months  later  at  full  term,  on  the  25th  of  December, 
was  made  a  Christian  festival^  mainly,  probably,  to  substitute  a 
Christian  festival  for  the  old  Pagan  festival  of  the  Saturnalia 
(December  17  and  18)  and  the  Opalia  (December  19  and  20). 
The  Eomans  had  been  in  the  habit  of  celebrating  these  days,  by 
an  exchange  of  presents,  especially  to  children  who  were  remem- 
bered with  dolls  and  toys;  the  rooms  were  decorated  with  ever- 
greens and  tapers  were  lighted,  because  at  this  festival  the  old 
fires  were  extinguished  and  new  fire  obtained  from  the  temple  of 
Vesta;  the  transition  from  such  a  festival  to  one  a  few  days 
later,  with  the  accompanying  gifts,  burning  candles,  decorated 
evergreen  trees,  etc.,  was  not  abrupt  but  easy,  and  the  old  Pagan 
pretation  of  the  festivities. 

In  England  the  festival  in  honor  of  the  winter  solstice,  which 
Saturnalian  rites  gave  way  more  readily  to  the  Christian  inter- 
had  been  celebrated  by  the  burning  of  the  Yule  log,  by  decorating 
the  home  with  evergreens  and  mistletoe  (which  was  sacred  in 
Druidic  times)  and  with  burning  candles  and  much  feasting,  was 
changed  also  to  a  festival  with  a  Christian  interpretation.  The 
old  decorated  tree  and  evergreens  were  retained,  but  the  associa- 
tion with  tree-worship  was  minimized  and  finally  lost. 

Primitive  people  generally  believed  that  forests,  streams, 
springs,  meadows,  hills  and  valleys  were  populated  by  supernatu- 
ral beings,  but  not  divine  or  immortal  or  of  godlike  nature,  such 
as  fauns,  sileni,  dryads,  nymphs,  etc.,  who  sported  about  in  more 
or  less  abandon. 

In  Arcadia,  for  example,  a  row  of  tall  cypress  trees  were  sup- 
posed to  be  inhabited  by  spirits  called  <u  irdpdwoi,  the  virgins;  but 
the  most  usual  name  for  these  spirits  was  w/x</»<u,  or  nymphs. 

In  Germany  is  a  group  of  three  trees  which  have  been  ven- 
erated for  centuries,  called  the  "Three  Graces"  (Fig.  232),  after 
the  "Three  Graces"  of  the  Greeks  (Fig.  233).  The  beauty  and 
symmetry  of  the  trees  readily  explains  why  they  were  called 
"The  Three  Graces." 

Figure  180  shows  a  "sacred  place"  in  Africa;  a  tree,  repre- 


410 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


senting  the  lingam,  and  two  stones,  usually  meteorites,  intended  to 
represent  the  testicles.  Moses  already  called  the  testicles  stones, 
and  we  still  do  so  in  ordinary  language,  although  "nuts"  is  also 
frequently  used.  The  ancients  said  that  the  goddess  Astarte  in- 
vented the  use  of  "inspired"  (meteoric)  stones,  which  were  used 
in  the  treatment  of  the  sick  by  waving  them  over  the  patient 
in  practically  the  same  manner  as  the  North  American  Indians 
wave  "big  medicine"  stones  over  their  patients.  These  stones 
were  sometimes  dressed  in  robes,  or  they  were  held  in  the  hand 
while  offering  sacrifices.  Philo  said  that  meteoric  stones  were 
sacred,  because  they  were  considered  to  be  divine  messengers, 


Fig.  232. — Three  gigantic  trees  in  Ger-  Fig.  233. — "Three  Graces,"  by  Thorwald- 
many,  named   the   "Three    Graces"   on  sen. 

account  of  their  graceful  proportions. 

having  fallen  out  of  heaven;  they  were  usually  worshipped  in 
connection  with  trees  (see  page  344).  In  the  days  of  early  aero- 
nautics, when  Montgolfier  and  other  Frenchmen  developed  the  art 
of  ballooning,  a  balloon  passed  over  a  village  but  above  the  clouds 
so  that  it  could  not  be  seen.  The  balloon  was  rapidly  falling,  so 
ballast  was  thrown  out,  and  among  the  articles  thrown  out  was  a 
throe-legged  wooden  stool ;  the  descent  of  this  stool  was  observed, 
and  the  priest  was  notified,  and  the  stool  was  placed  in  the  church. 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  411 

as  a  very  sacred  relic — because  it  had  fallen  out  of  heaven!    A 
similar  idea  rendered  the  meteorites  sacred. 

The  sacred  stones  were  not  considered  to  be  idols,  but  were 
merely  venerated  as  symbols  of  the  deities.  But  occasionally  they 
were  supposed  to  be  inhabited  by  the  god  whom  they  symbolized. 
This  was  also  the  view  held  in  regard  to  sacred  trees  or  groves, 
of  which  some  mention  is  due. 

In  Caanan,  in  ancient  times,  plant  worship  was  common,  and 
the  Israelites  frequently  lapsed  into  idolatry  connected  with  tree 
worship,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  numerous  references  in  the  Bible 
to  the  "groves;"  this  is  said  to  be  a  euphemistic  translation  of 
the  places  where  the  grossest  forms  of  sexual  excesses  and  aber- 
rations were  practiced  in  honor  of  Baal  Peor  (the  Master  of  the 
Hole,  or  Vulva)  and  Ashera,  the  female  principle  in  nature. 
Ashera  meant  the  "Happy  One,"  and  the  symbol  was  the  trunk 
of  a  tree.  According  to  some  authors,  Ashera  meant  the  symbol 
or  idol  of  Ashtoreth,  rather  than  the  name  of  the  goddess  herself. 

The  goddess  Ashtoreth,  Astoreth,  Ashtaroth,  Astarte  (Gr.), 
Ishtar  (Assyr.),  Istarah  (Pers.),  was  the  same  goddess;  the  name 
is  from  the  Greek  word  aarrjp  (Lat.  aster),  a  star.  She  was  sym- 
bolized by  the  moon  or  by  the  planet  Venus.  According  to  some 
authors  the  words  "grove"  or  "groves"  in  the  Bible  should  be 
"Ashtoreth"  (sing.)  or  "Ashtaroth"  (plur.) ;  the  word  "grove" 
being  an  error  in  translation. 

These  "groves"  are  referred  to  in  the  Bible  with  great  dis- 
approval, and  their  worship  was  considered  as  idolatry;  it  is 
true,  that  in  very  ancient  times,  long  before  the  times  of  Moses, 
Abraham  planted  a  grove  and  this  is  mentioned  without  being 
condemned;  Gen.  xxi,  33:  "And  Abraham  planted  a  grove  in 
Beer-sheba  and  called  there  on  the  name  of  the  Lord."  But 
more  usually  the  planting  of  groves  is  strongly  condemned ;  Deut. 
xvi,  21 :  "Thou  shalt  not  plant  thee  a  grove  of  any  trees  near  unto 
the  altar  of  the  Lord;"  or  I  Kings,  xvi,  33:  "And  Ahab  made  a 
grove;  and  Ahab  did  more  to  provoke  the  Lord  God  of  Israel  to 
anger  than  all  the  kings  of  Israel  that  were  before  him."  Also— 
II  Kings,  xvii,  16:  and  Israel  "made  them  molten  images,  even 
two  calves,  and  made  a  grove  *  and  served  Baal." 

We  shall  learn  more  about  Baal  later;  we  are  considering  here 
only  his  temples  or  places  for  worship — the  groves. 

Baal  was  often  represented  by  sun-pillars    or    stones,    and 


412  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

Ashera  by  trees,  the  word  "groves"  meaning  the  heathen  com- 
bination of  these  male  and  female  symbols.  The  African  "sacred 
places"  (p.  344)  are  survivals  of  the  "groves"  of  the  Bible. 

The  earliest  use  of  stone  pillars  used  in  ancient  Israel  and  in 
Canaan  were  probably  not  phallic  in  shape  or  significance,  but 
merely  marked  "holy  places,"  as  is  referred  to  in  Gen.  xxviii, 
20-22 :  ' '  And  Jacob  vowed  a  vow,  saying,  If  God  will  be  with  me, 
and  will  keep  me  in  this  way  that  I  go  and  will  give  me  bread  to 
eat,  and  raiment  to  put  on,  so  that  I  come  again  to  my  father's 
house  in  peace;  then  shall  the  Lord  be  my  God:  and  this  stone, 
which  I  have  set  for  a  pillar,  shall  be  God's  house." 

But  later  on,  by  the  times  of  Moses,  the  pillars  seem  always 
to  have  had  phallic  significance  and  were  condemned,  and  in  the 
groves  the  trees  or  tree-stems  stood  for  Ashera  and  the  pine- 
cone  for  Baal. 

In  these  temples  or  groves  of  Canaan  were  congregated  many 
priests,  also  temple  attendants,  female  and  male  prostitutes  (sod- 
omites) whose  earnings  went  into  the  temple  treasury. 

The  Hindus  believed  that  Krishna  brought  with  him  from 
heaven  the  sacred  tree  Parijata,  which  drives  away  hunger,  thirst, 
disease,  old  age  and  other  evils.  In  India,  also,  a  plant  was  (and 
is)  worshipped  which  is  called  Soma;  it  grows  in  Northern  India 
(Asclepias  acida)  from  which  in  Vedic  times  an  intoxicating 
drink  was  made,  which  was  gratifying  to  men  and  gods.  This 
plant  is  sacred.  Also,  the  lotus  is  worshipped  in  India,  as  well 
as  in  Egypt  and  other  countries. 

In  Egypt  there  grow  white,  blue  and  red  lotus  flowers;  the 
white  (Nymphaea  Lotus)  and  blue  (NympJiaea  caerulea)  lotus 
were  sacred  in  ancient  Egypt  and  are  an  essential  ornament  in 
temple  ornamentation  (see  Fig.  234) ;  the  open  flower  symbol- 
ized the  lingam,  but  the  bud  was  also  used  for  the  same  thing. 

The  Buddhists  practice  plant-worship,  although  it  is  not  spo- 
ken of  in  their  writings. 

The  Hawaiians  worshipped  as  a  deity  a  plant  which  yielded 
a  very  fine  textile  fiber;  fish-nets  made  of  it  have  been  known  to 
have  been  in  use  for  over  fifty  years.  It  is  called  Olona  (Touchar- 
dia  latifolia)  and  it  gives  the  strongest  and  most  durable  fiber  in 
the  world. 

In  ancient  Assyria  the  "grove"  or  "tree  of  life"  was  repre- 
sented in  sculpture  as  shown  in  Fig.  235;  the  central  pillar 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP 


413 


represents  a  lingam,  with  its  apex  in  contact  with  a  symbol  which 
represents  the  clitoris;  the  arch  is  the  "door  of  life"  or  yoni, 
and  the  thirteen  flowers  which  it  bears  mean  the  thirteen  men- 
strual epochs  of  the  woman  in  a  year ;  menstruation  is  still  spoken 
of  as  the  "flowers." 

In  later  times  the  alchemists  used  a  similar  symbolism;  in 


Fig.  234. — Offering  to  Seti  by  Pharaoh  Menephtha;   see  lotus  flower  and  buds  behind 

the  god. 


Fig.  235. — An  Assyrian  Tree  of  Life. 

this  illustration  of  the  marriage  of  the  sun  and  moon,  the  par- 
ents of  the  "philosophers'  stone,"  the  plant  also  has  these  thir- 
teen menstrual  "flowers"  (Fig.  236). 

In  ancient  Greece  and  Rome  trees  were  supposed  to  be  the 
habitations  of  dryads,  nymphs,  fauns  and  satyrs;  many  still  be- 


414 


SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 


lieve  such  creatures  to  exist,  but  now  under  the  names  of  fairies 
or  elves,  ''the  little  people,"  "the  good  people,"  and  in  Ireland, 
the  banshee. 

Dodona,  in  Epirus,  was  the  seat  of  an  ancient  Greek  sanc- 
tuary and  oracle;  the  latter  was  considered  second  only  to  the 
oracle  at  Delphi,  which  was  the  most  celebrated  of  all  Greek 
oracles.  The  method  of  gathering  the  response  of  the  oracle 
was  by  listening  to  the  rustling  of  the  leaves  of  an  old  oak  tree, 
which  was  supposed  to  be  the  seat  of  the  deity ;  this  was  perhaps 
but  a  reminder  of  tree-worship  of  former  times. 

In  Home  and  Greece  there  were  also  goddesses  who  presided 


Fig.  236. — Marriage   of   the   sun   and   moon,   parents   of   the   Philosopher's   stone; 

alchemistie. 

over  plants,  as  Ceres,  the  goddess  of  crops,  Flora,  the  goddess  of 
flowers,  Pomona,  the  goddess  of  fruits,  etc. 

The  wife  of  Tyndareus,  the  King  of  Sparta,  attracted  the 
notice  of  Zeus  by  her  beauty,  and  he  seduced  the  queen.  From 
this  union  resulted  a  daughter,  the  goddess  Helena,  who  pre- 
sided over  the  welfare  of  children.  Unmarried  maidens  cele- 
brated festivals  in  her  honor,  and  at  these  festivals  she  was  wor- 
shipped in  the  form  of  a  sacred  tree. 

Then  in  various  countries  "botanomancy"  or  divination  from 
leaves  (usually  sage  or  fig)  was  practiced;  letters  were  written  on 
leaves  and  then  the  wind  was  allowed  to  toss  these  leaves  about; 


SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP  415 

after  a  certain  time  those  that  remained  were  arranged  to  spell 
words  or  sentences,  which  were  accepted  as  the  answers  from  the 
gods.  The  fig-tree  and  the  fig  were  sacred;  Adam  and  Eve  cov- 
ering themselves  with  fig-leaves.  The  names  of  two  rivers  in 
paradise,  the  tree  of  life,  and  the  seducing  serpent  in  Genesis,  are 
originally  Persian  and  Hindu  stories.  The  fig  is  a  symbol  of  the 
feminine,  because  it  resembles  in  size  and  shape  a  human  uterus 
or  womb. 

In  various  parts  of  the  world  tree  worship  is  still  extant ;  for 
instance,  in  America,  Africa,  Asia  and  Australia.  Even  in  Eng- 
land we  find  reminders  in  such  names  of  places  as  Holywood, 
Holyoak,  etc. ;  among  the  people  known  as  the  Chersonese,  the 
spirits  are  still  worshipped  in  groves  of  trees,  or  in  the  forests— 
the  good  spirits  in  groves  of  deciduous  trees  and  the  bad  spirits 
in  groves  of  coniferous  trees;  the  latter  are  supposed  to  be 
haunted  by  the  North  American  Indians.* 

The  "Wych  (witch)  Hazel  (Ulmus  montana)  is  indigenous  in 
Great  Britain,  and  in  parts  of  Europe.  It  has  had  an  extensive 
cult,  as  its  name  ("witch")  implies,  in  connection  with  super- 
natural powers  or  witchcraft;  it  was  the  favorite  source  for  ob- 
taining the  divining  rod  with  which  to  find  water  for  wells,  hid- 
den deposits  of  minerals,  lost  articles,  etc. ;  in  many  parts  of  Eu- 
rope twigs  of  this  tree  are  used  when  driving  cows  to  the  bull. 

Divining  rods  are  of  great  antiquity  (Hosea  iv,  12) ;  Agric- 
ola,  in  1557  A.D.  mentions  their  use  in  locating  veins  of  ore.  Their 
use  in  finding  water  is  still  practiced  amongst  us. 

Plants  were  worshipped  in  Scandinavia  (the  Norse  tree 
Iggdrasil)  and  in  Germany  (Fru  Holler,  etc.) ;  they  are  still  a 
very  important  feature  in  China,  Japan,  etc. 

Asgard  was  the  home  of  the  Aesir  (or  the  Olympus  of  the 
Norse  gods).  When  the  Aesir,  the  pantheon  of  the  Norse  gods, 
created  men  they  connected  Midgard,  the  home  of  men,  with  As- 
gard, the  home  of  the  gods,  by  a  bridge  which  men  call  rainbow, 
which  also  leads  to  the  sacred  fountain  of  Urd,  situated  in  the 
shade  of  the  tree  Iggdrasil  where  the  gods  take  council.  Three 
of  the  Aesir  found  two  trees,  one  an  elm  tree  from  which  they 
fashioned  the  first  woman,  the  other  an  ash  tree,  from  which  they 
fashioned  the  first  man. 

*An  interesting  example  of  this  superstition  is  described  in  the  novel  To  Hare  and  to  Hold, 
by  Mary  Johnston. 


416  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

The  Druids  held  the  oak-tree  and  the  mistletoe  in  great  ven- 
eration, especially  when  the  latter  was  found  on  an  oak-tree,  thus 
combining  the  sanctity  of  the  two  plants;  when  thus  found,  a 
priest  clad  in  white  garments  cut  the  mistletoe  with  a  knife  made 
of  gold,  and  then  two  white  bulls  wrere  sacrificed  under  the  oak 
tree  on  which  the  mistletoe  was  found. 

Pliny  records  that  the  Druidic  name  for  mistletoe  meant 
''All  Heal,"  or  "Heal  All;"  he  also  said  that  mistletoe  was  con- 
sidered good  " conceptum  foeminarum  adjuvare,  si  omnino  secum 
liabeant"  (to  aid  conception  on  the  part  of  women,  if  they  have 
a  little  of  it  with  them").  In  olden  times,  as  we  learn  from  the 
Bible,  women  took  pride  in  being  fertile  and  in  having  children; 
they  were  not  desirous,  as  is  now  too  frequently  the  case,  to  avoid 
the  pains  of  childbirth  and  the  bother  of  rearing  children. 

Mistletoe  was  also  supposed  to  be  a  charm  of  particular  bene- 
fit in  women's  troubles  of  various  kinds,  and  was  therefore  kept 
in  the  rooms  of  a  married  couple. 

It  was  sacred  to  the  Goddess  Mylitta  in  Phoenicia,  in  whose 
temples  it  was  used  for  decorative  purposes.  Every  Phoenician 
woman  was  obliged,  once  in  her  lifetime,  to  have  connection  with 
a  man  not  her  husband,  as  a  religious  rite  in  the  temple  of  My- 
litta; when  she  was  ready  to  do  this,  she  went  to  the  temple  and 
sat  under  a  sprig  of  the  suspended  mistletoe,  and  any  man  who 
saw  a  woman  "under  the  mistletoe"  could  ask  her  to  accompany 
him  to  one  of  the  alcoves  provided  for  the  purpose,  where,  after 
having  paid  her  some  money,  he  had  connection  with  her.  The 
money  was  offered  by  the  woman  on  the  altar  of  the  temple  to  the 
goddess. 

One  of  the  botanical  names  of  the  mistletoe  is  Mylitta;  and 
when  we  see  a  girl  or  woman  under  the  mistletoe  at  Christmas 
time,  when  it  is  extensively  used  as  a  decoration,  we  may  kiss 
her ;  but  we  can  not  expect  the  privileges  originally  conferred  by 
the  plant. 

The  custom  of  employing  holly  and  other  plants  for  decora- 
tive purposes  at  Christmas  time,  is  regarded  as  a  survival  of  the 
customs  of  the  Roman  festival  of  the  Saturnalia,  or  of  the  old 
Teutonic  custom  of  hanging  evergreens  in  the  dwellings  as  a  ref- 
uge for  the  sylvan  spirits,  to  shelter  them  from  the  frost,  snow 
and  sleet  of  outdoors. 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  417 

Mandrake  Roots 

When  a  plant  or  plant-part  bore  a  resemblance  in  shape  to  a 
human  body,  or  to  human  parts,  superstitious  people  attached 
certain  virtues  to  these  plants  or  plant-parts,  and  especially  were 
they  regarded  as  potent  charms  to  compel  love  on  the  part  of 
persons  of  the  opposite  sex  for  the  one  who  was  the  possessor 
of  such  a  charm.  This  belief  was  very  widespread  and  was  based 
on  the  Bible. 

Gen.  xxx,  14-16:  "And  Reuben  went  in  the  days  of  wheat 
harvest,  and  found  mandrakes  in  the  field  and  brought  them  to 
his  mother  Leah,  Then  Rachel  said  to  Leah,  Give  me,  I  pray  thee, 
of  thy  son's  mandrakes.  And  Jacob  came  out  of  the  field  in  the 
evening,  and  Leah  went  out  to  meet  him,  and  said,  Thou  must  come 
in  unto  me;  for  surely,  I  have  hired  thee  with  my  son's  man- 
drakes. And  he  lay  with  her  that  night." 

Also,  in  the  Song  of  Songs,  the  bride  says:  "Come,  my  be- 
loved, let  us  go  forth  in  the  field ;  *  *  *  let  us  get  up  early  in 
the  vineyards;  let  us  see  if  the  vine  flourish,  whether  the  tender 
grape  appear,  and  the  pomegranate  bud  forth;  there  wall  I  give 
thee  my  loves.  The  mandrakes  give  a  smell,*  and  at  our  gates 
are  all  manner  of  pleasant  fruits,  new  and  old,  which  I  have  laid 
up  for  thee,  0,  my  beloved"  (Cant,  vii,  13). 

In  some  of  the  old  herb  books  may  be  found  drawings  of 
plants  which  are  supposed  to  represent  plant-parts  in  human 
shapes;  for  instance,  this  illustration  from  the  Ortus  Sanitatis 
or  Garden  of  Health,  published  in  Augsburg  in  1486,  represents 
on  the  left  a  "paradise  tree"  and  on  the  right  a  Narcissus  plant 
(Fig.  237). 

As  already  stated,  the  superstitious  esteem  of  mandrakes 
dates  back  at  least  to  1750  B.C.,  to  the  times  of  Jacob.  It  is  fre- 
quently represented  in  medical  books,  when  books  were  still  writ- 
ten by  hand,  centuries  before  the  invention  of  printing  from  mov- 
able type. 

A  drawing  of  such  mandrake  (or  alraun)  roots  is  here  shown 
(Fig.  238)  from  a  very  old  medical  work. 

When  a  mandrake  plant  was  found,  the  ground  was  partly 
removed  from  about  the  root,  and  it  was  tied  to  a  dog;  the  mas- 

*Cruden,  in  the  Concordance,  says  that  there  are  male  and  femala  mandrakes;  the  female 
mandrakes  have  a  fetid  odor,  while  the  male  mandrakes  are  fragrant. 


418 


Fig.  237. — From  the  Ortus  Sanitatis,  1486.    Para-  Fig.  238. — Mandrake      (or     al- 

dise  tree  and  Narcissus.  raun)  roots;  very  old  illustration. 


Fig.  239. — Mode  of  gathering  mandrake  roots. 


Fig.  240. — Mandrake  Roots,  from  the  Codex  Neapolitans,  at  Vienna. 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


419 


ter  of  the  dog  then  went  to  some  distance,  and  called  the  dog, 
who  struggled  till  the  root  came  loose;  the  man  put  wax  in  his 


*W 

Fig.  211. — The    goddess    Heuresis    giving  Fig.  242. — Mandrake     (false)     at    one 

mandrakes  to  Dioscorides;  512  A.D.  time  property  of  Emperor  Rudolph  II,  of 

Germany. 


Fig.  243.— Two  carrots. 


Fig.  244. — A  carrot. 


ears  and  blew  on  a  horn  so  that  he  could  not  hear  the  fearful 
yelling  of  the  mandrake  root,  which  would  have  killed  him  if  he 
had  heard  it  (Fig.  239). 


420 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


This  shows  a  drawing  of  mandrake  roots,  after  figures  in 
the  Codex  Neapolitanus  in  the  National  Library,  at  Vienna  (Fig. 
240). 

The  goddess  Heuresis  giving  mandrakes  to  Dioscurides ;  from 
the  Codex  Constantinopolitanus,  A.D.,  f)12  (Fig.  241). 


Fig.  245. — A  parsnip  root. 


Fig.  246. — Two  parsnip  roots  grown  together. 


Figure  242  shows  a  false  mandragora,  which  once  belonged 
to  the  Emperor  Kudolph  II,  of  Germany.  Such  a  root  was  often 
dressed  up  and  kept  as  a  kind  of  minor  idol,  or  charm;  it  was 
considered  of  great  value  in  obtaining  the  love  of  anyone  of  the 
opposite  sex,  and  a  compliance  with  sexual  desires,  by  anyone 
on  whom  the  owner  had  set  his  heart. 

Of  course,  this  is  merely  a  superstition,  but  the  appearance 
of  some  plant  parts  almost  compelled  such  beliefs. 

Figure  243  shows  two  carrots,  which  on  account  of  their 
bifid  appearance,  would  in  olden  times  have  been  such  charms. 

And  also  a  carrot  (Fig.  244),  which  much  more  closely  re- 
sembles a  female  body  than  those  just  shown.  Ginseng  roots  are 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


421 


Fig.  247. — A  sweet  potato  and  a  scar  on  a  piece  of  oak  bark. 


Fig.  248. — An  ordinary  potato. 


Fig.  249. — Elecampane  root,  altered  by 
adding  a  head  of  cork. 


422  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

very  often  suggestive  of  human  bodies  or  human  parts,  and  are 
very  highly  prized  as  aphrodisiacs  by  the  Chinese. 

How  close  this  resemblance  to  a  human  body  may  be,  is 
shown  in  this  photograph  of  a  parsnip  root,  absolutely  untrimmed 
or  unaided  by  art,  just  as  it  grew  (Fig.  245). 

Also,  these  two  parsnip  roots  (Fig.  246)  were  grown  together 
in  this  peculiar  manner ;  a  student  who  had  heard  my  lectures  on 
reproduction  in  plants,  sent  me  this,  with  the  remark  that  he  did 
not  believe  a  word  of  what  I  had  said  of  sexual  reproduction  in 
plants,  because  he  had  " caught  'em  at  it." 

Here  (Fig.  247)  is  a  potato  and  a  piece  of  oak-bark  with  a  scar 
on  it ;  they  remind  strongly  of  certain  parts  of  the  human  body,  and 
would  have  been  well  adapted  to  confirm  believers  in  such  love 
charms  in  their  ideas. 

Figure  248  is  a  potato  having  a  striking  phallic  resemblance. 
In  fact,  if  anyone  is  on  the  lookout  for  such  growths  they  can  be 
found  in  almost  unending  profusion;  nevertheless,  some  people 
help  them  along  by  trimming,  cutting  off  some  parts  or  adding 
others ;  the  illustrations  shown  are  of  unaltered  specimens.  I  add 
one,  however,  of  Elecampane  root  (Fig.  249),  in  which  the  head  was 
made  of  cork  and  was  glued  or  nailed  on. 

Plant  Names 

How  much  the  minds  of  men  ran  on  sex  matters,  when  they 
named  the  plants  and  ascribed  to  them  various  attributes  sug- 
gesting men  and  women,  may  be  inferred  from  the  following 
story.  To  read  it  aright,  ignore  the  botanical  names  and  read 
down  the  right-hand  column  of  English  names. 

A  ROMANCE  OF  PLANT  NAMES 

CHAPTER  I 
(!N  THE  PULPIT) 

Ipomoea  purpurea  Morning   glory. 

Lobelia  Cardinalis  Cardinal 

Strychnos  St.  Ignatii  Saint  Ignatius; 

Arum  triphyllum  Jack-in-the-pulpit, 

Pyrus  malus  (var.)  Minister; 

Aconitum  Napellus  Monkshood 

Mitella  diphylla  Bishop's  cap, 

Impatiens  pallida  Slippers 

Dipsacus  pilosus  Shepherd's  staff 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


423 


Solidago  odora 
Alyssum  saxatile 
Impaticns  fulva 
Ascyrum  Crux-Andrcae 
Asphodcles  ramosus 
Ranunculus  acris 


Golden    rod 
Basket  of  gold 
Speckled  jewels, 
St.    Andrew 's   Cross, 
Silver  rod, 
Gold  cup. 


(TiiE  SERMON) 


Lychnis  dioica 
Linaria  biennis 
Pyms   Mains    (var.) 
Gnaphalium  polycephalum 
Salvia  verbenaca 
ChamaeUrium  Caroliniamim 
Ornithogalum  nutans 
Angelica  officinalis 
Gnaphalium  dioica 


' '  Cross  of  Jerusalem  1 

Honesty 

Never  fail, 

Live  forever; 

Christ's  eye 

Blazing   Star 

Star  of  Bethlehem; 

Holy  Ghost! 

Life    everlasting!" 


CHAPTER  II 
(FATHER  CONFESSOR) 


Tragopogon  pratensis 
Hernandia   sonora 
Scutellaria   lateriflora 
Aconitum  Napellus 
Nuphar  advena 
Amaranthus  melancholicus 
Actaea  alba 


Noontide. 

Jack-in-a-box, 

Skull-cap, 

Friar's  cowl 

Brandy  bottles 

Nun 's  whipping  rope 

White  beads. 


(PENITENT  SINNERS) 


Agrostis  alba 
Eupatorium  pcrfoliatum 
Bromus  sccalinus 
Senecio  Jacobea 
Muhlenbergia  diffusa 
Triodria  cuprea 
Oryza  sativa 
Phleum  pratense 
Capsella  bursa-pastoris 
Dicentra   cucullaria 
Aristolochia  Sipho 
Capsella  bursa-pastoris 
Senecio   cineraria 
Lychnis  flos-cuculi 
Bidens   bi-pimiata 
Echinospermum   Virglnicum 
Saponaria  officinalis 
Nigella  Damascena 
Bidens  frondosa 
Mantisia    (var.) 
Dianthus  barbatu-s 


Red  top 
Joe   Pye, 
Cheat; 

Stinking  Willie 
Nimble    Will, 
Tall  red  top 
Paddy, 
Timothy, 
Pick- pockets ; 
Dutchman's  breeches 
Dutchman's  pipe 
Shepherd's  purse; 
Dusty  miller; 
Ragged  robin 
Beggar's  stick 
Beggar's  lice; 
Bouncing  Bet 
Ragged  Lady, 
Cuckolds ; 
Opera   girls. 
Sweet  William 


424 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


Phlox  maculata 
Artemisia  Abrotanum 
Osmorrhiza  longistylis 
Trillium   pendulum 
Viola  tricolor 
Atriplex  liortensis 


(DINNER) 


Pyrus  Halus  (var.) 
Galatea  glabella 
Castilleia  coccinea 
Latliyrus  pratensis 
Pyrus  Mains  (var.) 
Satureia  Jiorteivsis 
Lemna  minor 
Salvia  officinalis 
Trifolium  arvense 
Linaria  vulgaris 
Solamum  Dulcamara 
Nasturtium  officinale 
Valerionella  olitoria 
Pyrus  Mains  (var.) 
Coffea  arabica 
Pyrus  Mains   (var.) 


Wild  Sweet  William, 
Boy's  love; 
Sweet  Cicily, 
True  love; 
Stepmother 
Bonny  dame. 


Victuals  and  drink; 
Milk  pea 
Painted  cup 
Everlasting  pea; 
Hominy ; 
Savory 
Duck's  meat, 
Sage; 

Rabbit's  foot 
Butter  and  eggs; 
Bitter-sweet 
Water  cress 
Lamb  lettuce 
Green  cheese. 
Coffee. 
Wine. 


CHAPTER  III 
(!N  THE  MEADOW) 


Mirabilis  Jalapa 
Mirabilis    longiflora 
Claytonia  Virginica 
Pyrus   Mains    (var.) 
Erigenia    bulbosa 
Eliexia  Mariana 
Clematis  vitalba 
Nepeta  glcclioma 
Eanunculws  aconiti folia 
Lilium  bulbiferum 
Eosa  centifolia 
Bellis  integrifolia 
Osmorrliiza  brevistylis 
Abrus  precatorius 
Spiraea  salicifolia 
Nepeta  glechona 
Pyrus  Malus   (var.) 
Sisyrincliiiim  Bermudianum 
Eupatorium  purpureum 
Spiraea  lobata 


Four  o'clock 
Afternoon  ladies; 
Spring  beauty 
Sweet  June 
Harbinger  of  Spring. 
Meadow  beauty 
Ladies'  bower; 
Hedge  maids 
Fair  maids  of  France, 

Lily, 

Eose, 

Daisy, 

Sweet  Cicily, 

Black-eyed  Susan, 

Meadow-Sweet 

Haymaids. 

Bed  cheek. 

Blue-eyed  Lily 

Queen  of  the  meadow, 

Queen  of  the  prairie. 


(THE  BATH;  DISROBING) 

Polygonicum  persicaria  Ladies'  thumb 

Anthyllis  vulneraria  Ladies'  fingers 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


425 


Digitalis  purpurea 
Capsicum  tetragonum 
Liatris  scariosa 
Melia  Azedarach 
Copt  is  tri  folia 
Digitalis  purpurea 
Polygonum   sagittatum 
Alchemilla  vulgaris 
Khos  cotinus 
Narcissus   bulbocodium 
Croton  tinctorium 
Clematis  vitalba 
Cestum  veneris 
Cardamine  pratensis 
Chionanthus  Vvrginica 
Phalaris  Canariensis 
Lotus  corniculata 
Cypripediitm  pubescens 
Cypripedium  spectabile 
Nymphaea  odorata 
Cypripedium  candidum 

(BATHING) 
Dipsaciis  sylvestris 
Nymphaea   odorata 
Naias  flexilis 
Proserpinaca  palustris 
Spiranthes  autumnalis 
Adiantum  Capillus-Vcneris 
Adiantum  pedatum 
Scandix  Pecten-Veneris 
Colchicum  autumnale 
Aplectum  hyemale 
Mantisia  (var.) 
Naias  Canadcnsis 
Pyrus  Mains  (var.) 
Spccularia  pcrfoliata 
Spccularia  speculum 


Fairy  fingers; 

Scotch  bonnets, 

Gay  feathers 

Beads 

Gold  thread ; 

Ladies'  gloves 

Tear- thumb 

Ladies'  mantle 

Purple  fringe; 

Hoop  petticoats 

Red  patch; 

Bind-with 

Venus'  girdle, 

Ladies'  smock 

White  fringe; 

Garters 

Shoes  and  stockings, 

Lady's  slipper 

Showy  ladies'  slippers; 

Sweet  Lily, 

Small  white  Venus'  slipper. 


Venus '  Bath ; 

Water  lily, 

Naiad 

Mermaid ; 

Ladies'  tresses 

Venus'  hair, 

Maiden  's  hair, 

Venus'  comb; 

Naked  ladies 

Adam  and  Eve 

Dancing  girls 

Water  nymph. 

Water. 

Venus  looking  glass, 

Ladies'  looking  glass. 


(SURPRISED  BY  HUNTERS) 

Chcnopodium  Bonus-IIenricus     Good  King  Henry 
Sarracenia  purpurea 
Polygonum  orientale 
Pyrus  Mains  (var.) 
Spiraea  hyperacea 
Iris  versicolor 
Draoocephalum  parviflorum 
Ccntaurca  Cyanus 
Mertensia  Virginica 
Scabiosa  arveiisis 
Pyrus  Mains  (var.) 
Arum  triphyllum 


Huntsman  's  cap 

Prince 's    feather ; 

Queen  Anne 

Bridal  wreath ; 

Blue   flag 

Dragon 's  head ; 

Blue-cap 

Blue  bells, 

Blue  buttons. 

Wealthy 

Lord  and  Ladies 


426                                                SEX   AND   SEX  WORSHIP 

Saponaria  officinalis  London  Pride. 

Sarracenia  flava  Trumpets 

Equisetum  hyemale  Horse-tail 

Hippuris  vulgaris  Mare  's-tail 

Eleusine  Indica  Dog's-tail; 

Cynoglossum  officinale  Hound's  tongue, 

Laurus  nobilis  Bay. 

Dipsacus  Sylvestris  Venus'  bath 

Mirabilis  Jalapa  Wonder-of -the- world  1 

Pyrus  Maluss  (var.)  Maiden's  blush. 

(THE  PEEPER) 

Alaria  officinalis  Jack-by-the-hedge 

Jatropha  stimulosa  Tread  lightly 

Abies  communis  Spruce 

Celosia  cistula  Cockscomb; 

Arundinaria  macrosperma  Cane 

Stillingia  Sylvatica  Cock-up-hat 

Cytisus  Laburmim  Golden  chain 

Hydrastis  Canadensis  Golden  seal; 

Euphrasia  officinalis  Eye-bright 

Vinca  major  Hundred  eyes. 

(THE  TEMPTATION) 

Nigella  Damascena  Devil-in-a-bush 

Chelone  glabra  Snakehead 

Opliioglossum  vulgatum  Adder's  tongue; 

Ipomoea  pandurata  Man-of-the-earth, 

Cliamaelirium  Carolinianum  Devil's  bit, 

Citrus  Aurantium  Forbidden  fruit, 

Prenanthes  serpentaria  Gall-of -the-earth ; 

Viola  tricolor  Love  in  idleness. 

(THE  FALL) 

Nigella  Damascena  Love-in-a-mist; 

Eumex  Patientia  Passions 

Ligustrum  Vulgare  Privy 

Potentilla  palustri-s  Five  fingers; 

Pisum  Sativum  Pea. 

CHAPTER  IV 

(THE  NEXT  NIGHT) 

Pyrus  Mains  (var.)  Summer 

Solanum  nigrum  Nightshade 

Ornithogalum  umbellatum  Ten  o'clock 

Circaea  Lutetiana  Enchanter's  nightshade 

Mirabilis  Jalapa  Beauty  of  the  night 

Aletris  farinosa  Blazing  stars. 

Clematis  (var.)  Ladies'  bower. 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  427 

(SLEEPING  INNOCENCE) 

Solanum  somniferum  Sleepy  nightshade 

Clematis  erecta  Upright  virgin's  bower, 

Galium  verum  Yellow  bed-straw 

Galium  trifloritm  Sweet-scented  bed-straw 

Galium  verum  Our  lady's  bed-straw; 

Ligustrum  vulgare  Prim 
Sisyrinchium  Bermudianum        Blue-eyed  lily, 

Dianthus  deltoides  Maiden  pink 

Liliwn  Canadensis  Nodding  Lily; 

Mirabilis  Jalapa  Beauty-by-night 
Antennaria  Margareticum          None-so-pretty 

Ilaustonia  caerulea  Innocence, 

Polytricham  vulgare  Golden  maiden  hair ; 

Dianthus  caryophyllus  Pink 

Tulipa  Gesneriana  Tulips; 

Leucanthemum  vulgare  White  daisy 

Eosa  canina  Hips; 

Galium  verum  Maid 's  hair 

Viola  tricolor  Heart's  ease. 

(THE  TEMPTER) 

Dianthus  barbatus  Sweet  John; 

Graphalium  arenari/um  Golden  locks, 

Polygonum  persicaria  Red  shanks, 

Polygonum  Bistorta  Red  legs 

Staphylea  trifolia  Bladder  nut 

Solidago  odora  Red  rod 

Solidago  rigida  Rigid  golden  rod, 

Stillingia  sylvatica  Queen 's  delight. 

(REPULSED) 

Artemisia  Abrotanum  Lad's  love; 

Nymphaea  odorata  "Sweet  Lily, 

Viola  tricolor  Kiss  me! 

Lactuca  sativa  Lettuce 

Cannabis  Indica  Bhang! 

Viola  tricolor  Cuddle-me-to-you  I ' ' 

Lilium  candidum  White  Lily 

Colchicum  autumnale  Upstart, 

Nigella  Damascena  Love-in-a-puzz> ; 

Lichen  igniarius  Spunk; 

Taxus  Canadensis  ' '  Yew 

Impatiens  pallida  Touch  me  notl  " 

(THE  RAPE) 

Rumex  Patientia  Passions; 

Viola  tricolor  Kisses. 

Tritoma  uvaria  Red-hot  poker 


428                                                SEX   AND   SEX  WORSHIP 

Impatiens  pallida  Quick  in  the  hand. 

Brassica  rapa  Rape 

Sedum  album  Prick  madam 

Phytolacca  decandria  Poke 

Bidens  fondosa  Stick  tight 

Polyanthus  tuberosa  Mistress  of  the  night 

Amaranthus  melancholicus  Love-lies-bleeding. 

(His  ESCAPE) 

Berchemia  volubilis  Supple  Jack 

Junous  effusus  Rush; 

Veronica  officinalis  Speedwell, 

Viola  tricolor  Johnny-jumper 

Humulu/s  Lupulus  Hop! 

(REMORSE) 

Euta  graveolens  Rue 

Gnaphalium  decurrens  Everlasting. 

CHAPTER  V 
(CONSEQUENCES) 

Gentiana  Pneumonanthe  Autumn  bells; 

Brunella  vulgaris  Self-heal 

Eubigo  alnea  Blight, 

Scnecio  aurea  Female  regulator 

Tanacetum  vulgare  Tansy 

Euphrasia  lielioscopa  Little  good; 

Triticum  repens  Quickens. 

(THE  BABY) 

Ualesia  tetraptera  Snow  drop 

Leucoium  vernum  Snow  flake. 

Limnanthemum  laounos-um  Floating  heart-, 

Amaranthus   hypochondriacus  Lovely  bleeding 

Pyrus  Malus  (var.)  Mother, 

Pyrm  Malus  (var.)  Delicious 

Arum  Maculatum  Cocky  baby; 

Carica  Papaya  Papaw? 

(HER  FOLKS) 

Sambucus  Canadensis  Elder 

Aralia  hispida  Wild  elder 

Asclepias  curassivica  Red  head 

Artemisia  Abrotanum  Old  man 

Eubia  tinctoria  Madder; 

Pyrus  Malus  (var.)  Brother  Jonathan 

Medicago  lupulina  None-such 

TIeraclium  lanatum  Madness; 

Andropogon  muricatus  Kus-kus 

Aralia  racemosa  Life-of-man. 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  42!) 

(REVENGE) 

Antirrhinum  ma  jus  Bull-dogs, 

Typha  latifolia  Cat-o '-nine-tails, 

Yucca  aloe  folia  Spanish  daggers 

Aralia  spinosd  Hercules'   club 

Capsicum  annu-um  Chilly 

Atropa  Belladonna  Deadly  nightshade; 

Centaurea  Niger  Logger-heads 

Lythrum  hyssopifolia  Loose  strife 

Achillea  Mille folium  Nose-bleed 

Nuphar  advcna  Spatter-dock, 

Digitalis  pnrpurea  Bloody  fingers 

Pyrus  cormnunis  Blood  good, 

Eumex  sangidnea  Bloody  dock 

Ciouta  Maculata  Death-of-man. 

(THE  FUNERAL) 

Monotropa  uniflora  Corpse  plant 

Qtiercus  nigra  Black  Jack 

Fraxinus  Americana  Ash 

Soccella  iinctoria  All  bones 

Convolvulus  panduratus  Man-in-the-ground ; 

Viburnum  prunifoliiim  Sloe 

Digitalis  purpurca  Dead  men's  bells. 

(THE  MOURNER) 

Scabiosa  atropurpurea  Mourning  bride; 

Sedum  telephium  Live-long 

Rumex  Patientia  Patience, 

Melissa  officinalis  Balm 

Erunella  wilgaris  Heal-all; 

Scabiosa  atropurpurea  Mourning  widow 

Buchnera  Americana  Blue  heart 

Cypripedium  pubesccns  Bleeding  heart 

Pinus  Strobiis  Pine ; 

Daphne  alpina  Widow- wail 

Myasotis  arvensiv  ' '  Forget-me-not ! ' ' 

(APOLOGETICALLY  EXPLANATORY) 

The  style  of  this  narrative  is  somewhat  abrupt  and  jerky,  and  there  is  an 
unusual  scarcity  of  verbs;  the  story  is  suggestive,  rather  than  descriptive. 

But  it's  the  old,  old  story,  sung  and  told  a  thousand  times  in  a  thousand 
variations  since  the  days  of  Good  Queen  Margaret  of  Navarre. 

(MORAL) 
The  Moral?     Well,  the  same  as  in  the  Heptameron:     "Beware  of  the  Men!" 

(CHORUS  or  READERS) 
Ca&tanea  Americana  "Chestnut!" 


430  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

ANIMAL  WORSHIP 

In  early  stages  of  the  development  of  religious  thought  in 
savage  nations,  animals  were  worshipped  as  divine,  and  as  the 
nations  and  their  thoughts  advanced  to  a  higher  plane,  these 
animals  ceased  to  be  considered  as  the  divinities  themselves  and 
became  merely  symbols  for  more  or  less  anthropomorphic  gods. 

Many  primitive  people  believed  that  they  were  descendants 
from  certain  animals,  which  were  their  totems,  and  while  this 
idea  is  now  restricted  to  savage  tribes,  it  was  at  one  time  com- 
mon even  among  such  people  as  the  ancient  Greeks,  who,  how- 
ever, in  those  days  were  not  much  above  savages;  while  totems 
were  not  worshipped,  they  were  regarded  with  a  sort  of  reverence, 
and  could  not  be  killed  nor  eaten,  but  it  does  not  imply  that  these 
totems  were  considered  as  divinities. 

A  curious  account  of  their  totem  is  that  of  the  Thibetans  be- 
cause it  almost  gives  the  idea  that  they  have  a  traditional  belief 
in  their  relationship  to  the  apes,  etc.,  dating  back,  perhaps,  to  the 
times  of  the  evolutionary  stages,  ages  ago.  The  Thibetans  claim 
to  be  descendants  of  an  ape  and  a  female  demon;  these  had  six 
children  of  whom  they  tired  and  whom  they  abandoned  in  a  for- 
est. Years  afterwards  the  ape  returned  and  found  that  the  six 
had  increased  to  five  hundred  descendants  from  the  original  six 
brothers  and  sisters;  of  course,  incest  was  not  known  or  ab- 
horred in  primitive  horde  communities,  any  more  than  among 
animals.  These  descendants  were  very  poor,  in  need  of  every- 
thing, and  hardly  able  to  keep  themselves  from  starving.  So  the 
ape  asked  the  god  Chenresig  to  be  their  guardian,  to  which  the 
latter  consented;  he  threw  out  five  kinds  of  grain  which  the  ape- 
demons  ate,  whereupon  their  tails  and  hair  grew  shorter,  and 
they  began  to  speak  and  to  clothe  themselves,  and  finally  became 
changed  to  men  and  women. 

A  very  ancient  conception  of  god  is  the  turtle,  on  account  of 
the  resemblance  of  its  head  and  neck  to  the  lingam.  The  turtle 
therefore  became  a  symbol  for  the  lingam,  the  demiurge  or  actual 
creator,  the  Origin  and  Sustainer  of  all  things.  In  the  Hindu  cos- 
mogony (Fig.  250)  the  earth  was  supposed  to  be  supported  on  the 
backs  of  four  elephants,  which  in  turn  were  supported  on  the 
back  of  a  turtle  which  swam  about,  like  a  gold  fish  in  a  fish-globe, 


SEX    AND   SEX    WORSHIP 


431 


within  the  celestial  crystal  spheres  that  upheld  the  sun,  moon  and 
stars. 

Medieval  churches  were  often  decorated  with  paintings  or 
sculptures  of  Adam  and  Eve,  sometimes  with  representations  of 
coition  between  animals,  more  rarely  between  humans,  or  other 
references  to  the  divine  creative  sexual  powers;  here  is  shown, 
in  a  carved  banister  in  a  German  church,  coition  between  animals, 
the  head  of  the  penis  carved  in  the  shape  of  a  turtle's  neck  and 
head  (Fig.  251).  This  turtle  head  was  the  origin  of  our  speaking 
of  the  glans  penis  as  the  "head  of  the  penis." 


Fig.  250. — Hindu  Cosmogony. 

It  was  largely  this  kind  of  ikons  or  images  that  were  de- 
stroyed by  the  iconoclasts  of  medieval  times. 

In  ancient  Assyria  the  bull  was  the  actual  male  creator  or 
progenitor  of  mankind;  he  was  generally  represented  as  winged, 
to  indicate  his  divine  nature.  The  bull  was  also  worshipped  in 
other  Oriental  lands,  from  Egypt  eastward,  in  India,  Japan,  etc. ; 
in  Egypt,  for  instance,  as  the  Apis  bull. 

The  Apis  bull  was  supposed  to  be  an  incarnation  of  Osiris, 
the  male  principle  in  nature,  but  this  bull  was  not  merely  a  symbol 


432 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


for  Osiris,  he  was  Osiris  himself.  He  was  supposed  to  have  been 
born  of  a  virgin  heifer,  Avho  was  rendered  pregnant  by  a  moon- 
beam or  a  flash  of  lightning.  When  an  Apis  bull  died,  another 
was  sought  by  the  priests,  who  recognized  him  by  certain  birth- 
marks, a  black  hide  with  a  white  triangle  (male  pyramid)  on  his 
forehead  and  a  crescent  on  his  side,  and  under  his  tongue  a  swell- 
ing or  tumor  like  a  scarabaeus  insect ;  as  the  priests  always  found 
a  new  Apis  bull,  this  seems  to  show  that  the  Egyptian  priests  were 
experts  in  marking  or  branding  cattle,  and  could  produce  the  re- 
quired characteristics  of  the  Apis  god  at  will. 

When  the  new  god  was  discovered  he  was  taken  to  Nilopolis 
where  he  was  specially  housed  and  fed  on  milk  for  four  months. 
When  mature  enough,  he  was  taken  to  a  ship,  at  the  time  of  the 
new  moon,  which  was  a  festival  in  Egypt,  and  conducted  in  cere- 
monious state  to  the  temple  at  Memphis,  where  for  the  first  forty 
days  after  his  arrival  he  was  seen  and  attended  only  by  women 


Fig.  251. — Wood  carvings  from  a  frieze  in  a  church  at  Andlan  (about  1050  A.D.).     See 
first  picture  (coition)  in  upper  row. 

who  fed  him  and  exposed  themselves  to  him,  by  submitting  to 
sexual  union  with  him,  for  this  was  the  custom  with  the  bull  at 
Memphis  and  the  ram  or  goat  at  Mendes ;  this  practice  is  referred 
to  in  the  edict  of  Moses  in  Lev.  xviii,  23:  "Neither  shalt  thou 
lie  with  any  beast  to  defile  thyself  therewith;  neither  shall  any 
woman  stand  before  a  beast  to  lie  down  thereto;  it  is  confusion." 

The  mother  of  the  god  Apis  was  housed  in  a  separate  temple 
compartment  and  was  attended  by  a  special  detail  of  priests ;  she 
was  the  goddess  Athor,  represented  in  sculpture  like  a  woman 
with  a  cow's  head.  She  was  the  Venus  of  the  Egyptians. 

Because  Isis  was  the  wife  of  Osiris,  of  whom  the  Apis  bull 
was  an  incarnation,  Isis  was  often  represented  in  sculpture  as  a 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


433 


cow,  or  a  goddess  with  a  cow's  head,  but  she  was  not  worshipped 
in  the  form  of  a  living  cow.  The  cow,  in  Egyptian  art,  was  also 
a  symbol  for  the  "sky"  or  "dawn,"  for  which  symbol  she  was 
represented  with  her  belly  painted  blue  and  dotted  with  stars. 

When  gods  and  goddesses  were  represented  as  animals,  or 
as  human  bodies  with  animal  heads,  they  were  of  more  or  less 
savage  and  coarse  nature;  the  Apis  bull  and  the  Athor  cow  rep- 
resenting in  the  coarsest  and  plainest  manner  the  male  and  female 
powers  in  nature. 

When  the  Apis  bull  died  he  was  supposed  to  have  resumed 
his  heavenly  form  of  Osiris  for  a  while;  the  dead  bull  was  em- 
balmed or  mummified,  and  placed  in  a  tomb  amid  great  demon- 


Fig.  25± — Tho  Egyptian  goddess  Isis;  sometimes  represented  as  a  woman,  as  a  woman 
with   a  cow's  head,   or  as   a  cow,   nursing  her  child   Horus. 

strations  of  national  mourning.  He  was  called  Sarapis  or  Ser- 
apis,  and  the  tombs  where  the  bulls  were  buried  was  called  the 
Serapion;  as  in  the  case  of  the  Pharaohs  and  their  queens,  so 
also  in  the  case  of  the  dead  Apis  bull,  the  genitals  were  gilded, 
although  in  some  cases,  either  to  do  special  honor  to  the  bull, 
or  to  a  queen,  the  penis  of  the  Serapis  was  placed  in  the  vagina 
of  a  queen  and  buried  in  that  way. 

Cows  were  sacred  to  Isis,  and  were  not  offered  as  sacrifices 
in  Egypt;  only  bulls  being  offered  in  the  temple  rites. 

Egyptian  mythology  lasted  more  than  5000  years,  and  some 
of  their  stories  about  their  deities  became  modified  in  the  course 
of  time,  so  that  earlier  and  later  accounts  do  not  always  tally; 
moreover,  every  town  in  Egypt  had  its  own  sacred  animals  or 


434  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

fetiches  (mascots)  and  its  own  local  divinities;  also  separate 
dialects  of  speech  and  hence  varying  names.  This  has  created  a 
great  confusion  in  trying  to  make  a  correct  account  of  Egyptian 
religion. 

The  Israelites  during  their  sojourn  in  the  wilderness  remem- 
bered this  Egyptian  worship  and  prevailed  on  Aaron  to  erect  for 
them  the  image  of  the  Apis  god  (a  golden  calf)  while  Moses  was 
on  the  mountain  with  God,  to  receive  the  tablets  with  the  Ten 
Commandments;  also,  under  various  kings,  they  lapsed  to  this 
kind  of  idolatry. 

In  Greece,  Minos,  a  mythical  king  of  Crete,  became  a  god 


Fig.  253. — Sacred  bull  in  Ummernath  Cave,  India.     Many  thousand  pilgrims  come 
to  this  cave  annually  to  worship  this  bull  (see  at  foot  of  the  man). 

after  death,  and  became  the  judge  of  the  dead;  he  was  considered 
to  be  the  same  as  the  sun-god,  his  wife  Parsiphae  being  the  moon- 
goddess.  They  were  symbolized  as  a  bull  and  a  cow.  Parsiphae 
fell  in  love  with  the  bull  of  Minos,  and  gave  birth  to  the  fabled 
Minotaur,  which  was  half  human,  half  bull. 

Jupiter  changed  himself  to  a  bull  to  rape  Europa. 

In  India,  also,  the  bull  was  and  is  worshipped ;  as,  for  instance, 
a  sacred  bull  at  Hallibeeb,  India. 

Here  the  cow  also  was  held  in  great  honor,  but  the  extent  to 
which  this  worship  is  now  carried  in  India  is  comparatively  mod- 
ern; for  instance,  in  Nepal,  a  small  independent  state  northeast 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  435 

of  Hindustan,  up  to  quite  recent  times,  it  was  considered  to  be 
murder  to  kill  a  cow,  and  this  was  punishable  by  death. 

The  Hindus  believe  that  the  God  Indra,  god  of  the  sky,  some- 
times assumes  the  shape  of  a  bull  and  lives  for  a  time  on  earth. 

In  Persia,  the  urine  of  the  cow  is  used  as  holy  water  is  used 
in  our  Catholic  churches. 

Figure  254  shows  a  statue  of  a  bull  in  a  park  in  Tokio,  Japan ; 
the  devotee  touches  the  sacred  form  in  the  hope  that  this  will  cure 
her  rheumatism. 

Among  the  ancient  Assyrians  the  goat  was  the  symbol  for 
sexual  vigor,  and  was  worshipped  as  a  lingam  god  or  deity.  The 


L 


Fig.  254. — A  bull  in  a  park  in  Tokio,  Japan. 

goat  was  also  worshipped  at  Mendes,  in  Egypt;  here  men  cohab- 
ited with  she-goats  and  women  with  male  goats  or  bucks  in  honor 
of  the  Ram,  who  was  the  god  of  Mendes.  He  had  no  special  name, 
but  was  simply  called  the  Ram,  but  his  worship  was  similar  to 
that  of  the  Apis  god,  but  was  not  limited  to  a  few  privileged 
women,  but  any  woman  could  resort  to  the  temple  and  submit 
herself  to  one  of  the  male  goats  which  had  been  trained  to  enjoy 
the  unnatural  union;  or  men  could  cohabit  with  female  goats. 
This  theme  furnished  a  favorite  motif  for  wall-paintings  in  the 
bath  rooms  of  Roman  villas  in  Herculaneum  and  Pompeii. 

The  origin  of  the  fabled  satyrs  may  possibly  be  sought  in 
these  strange  unions,  for  the  belief  that  coition  with  animals  can 


436 


SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


result  in  pregnancy  was  common  at  one  time  and  is  not  yet  en- 
tirely extinct.  The  Greek  satyrs  were  supposed  to  be  inordi- 
nately concupiscent,  ever  chasing  nymphs,  whom  they  seized  and 
raped  whenever  they  could;  from  this  characteristic  we  have  the 
term  satyriasis. 

Later  on,  the  satyrs,  or  sileni,  which  were  similar,  became 
changed  in  popular  belief  or  superstition  into  the  popular  Chris- 
tian notion  of  the  devil,  with  bats'  wings,  horns,  tail  and  cloven 
foot. 

Cattle,  cats,  monkeys,  ibises,  and  other  animals  were  and  still 
are  sacred  in  many  Oriental  countries,  although  not  necessarily 
revered  as  deities  or  as  symbols  for  sexual  divinities. 

The  Zulus,  North  American  Indians,  Chinese,  Peruvians  and 


Fig.  255. — Goat  worship  at  Mendes,  in  Egypt. 

some  other  people  believe  that  "thunder-birds,"  snakes,  dragons, 
and  other  beasts  inhabit  the  heavens,  and  hunt  the  sun  and  the 
moon,  attempting  to  swallow  them,  thus  causing  eclipses;  many 
of  these  people,  when  they  see  an  eclipse  beginning,  clash  their 
shields,  shout,  beat  drums  or  tom-toms,  shoot  firearms  and  make 
as  much  noise  as  possible  to  scare  away  the  beast  that  is  trying 
to  devour  the  sun  or  moon. 

Certain  animals  were  associated  with  certain  deities,  with- 
out however  being  worshipped;  although  occasionally,  they  were 
considered  as  symbols  for  the  deity,  as  the  owl  for  Pallas  Athena 
in  Greece,  or  the  vulture  for  Suben,  the  goddess  of  maternity, 
in  Egypt. 

Thus,  the  eagle  was  sacred  to  Jupiter,  the  owl  to  Athena,  the 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


437 


peacock  to  Juno,  the  doves  to  Venus',  the  raven  to  Apollo,  the 
hawk  to  Odin  (Norse),  etc. 

In  ancient  Assyria  doves  (or  pigeons)  were  sacred  to  Semi- 
ramis  (a  mythical  queen)  who  was  merely  a  variant  of  Ashtoreth, 
the  Assyrian  and  Accadian  Venus,  later  on  the  Venus  of  the  Greeks 
and  Komans ;  the  reason  why  the  doves  were  sacred  to  these  deities 
was  because  the  sound  made  by  cooing  doves  sounded  like  the  As- 
syrian word  for  coition. 

The  ass  was  sacred  to  Hestia  or  Vesta.  A  legend  said  that 
the  goddess  was  sleeping  in  a  pleasant  meadow  when  Priapus 
saw  her ;  in  obedience  to  his  nature,  he  sneaked  towards  her  with 


Fig.  256. — Athena  and  cocks  as  symbols      Fig.  257. — The    god    Priapus    as    a    cock, 
of  victory;  from  a  vase  given  as  a  prize  from  a  Greek  temple, 

in  the  Olympian  Games. 

the  intent  of  committing  rape  on  her.  The  ass  of  Silenus  was 
browsing  in  the  same  meadow,  and  to  thwart  Priapus  he  brayed 
so  loud  that  the  goddess  and  all  the  gods  of  Olympus  were  aroused 
and  Vesta's  virtue  and  reputation  were  saved;  but  this  was  not 
done  with  the  intention  of  saving  Vesta,  but  for  the  purpose  of 
annoying  the  god  Priapus. 

In  Christian  symbolism  the  dove  is  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  lamb 
represents  Jesus  (as  the  Agnus  Dei,  or  lamb  of  God),  the  snake 
represents  the  devil;  Matthew  is  accompanied  by  or  represented 
by  an  angel,  Mark  by  an  ox,  Luke  by  a  lion  and  John  by  an  eagle. 


438  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

The  cock,  or  rooster,  on  account  of  his  almost  unlimited  activ- 
ity as  a  male,  was  at  an  early  time  made  a  symbol  of  masculine 
power  and  vigor.  This  drawing  (Fig.  256),  from  a  vase  given 
as  a  prize  at  the  ancient  Olympian  games,  shows  victory  symbol- 
ized by  Pallas  Athena,  with  the  cock  on  a  phallic  pillar. 

We  still  use  the  cock  as  a  symbol  of  victory  in  politics ;  and 
we  call  the  penis  itself  a  "cock."  It  was  used  on  the  Christian 
tombs  in  the  catacombs  of  Eome  to  express  the  victory  achieved 
by  the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  over  death. 

And  finally,  this  is  the  representation  of  a  bronze  figure  of 
Priapus  which  was  found  in  an  ancient  Greek  temple  (Fig.  257). 

We  have  learned  that  the  anthropophagi  imagined  that  when 
they  ate  a  fallen  enemy,  his  valor  or  other  good  virtues  were  con- 
ferred on  them;  similar  ideas  were  held  in  regard  to  certain  ani- 
mals, the  CJiardka-SamTiita,  an  ancient  Hindu  medical  work,  teach- 
ing, for  instance,  that  to  eat  the  flesh  of  the  cock  will  confer  his 
vigor  as  a  male  on  the  eater. 

While  some  other  animals  were  occasionally  used  as  symbols, 
or  connected  with  various  superstitions,  the  above  is  sufficient  to 
give  us  an  idea  of  their  worship,  either  as  deities,  or  reverence 
for  them  as  symbols  for  anthropomorphic  gods. 

SOME  OF  THE  GODS 
Assyrian  and  Babylonian 

It  is  beyond  the  scope  of  this  book  to  mention  in  detail  the 
various  theologies  and  mythologies  and  the  gods  and  goddesses 
thereof;  but  it  will  prove  of  interest  to  learn  how  much  sex  had 
to  do  with  them,  and  the  theories  about  them. 

Beginning  with  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  gods,  we  learn 
that  the  most  ancient  recorded  religion  among  these  people  was 
a  Shamanism  or  demon  worship  similar  to  that  which  is  still 
prevalent  among  the  people  of  Northern  Asia. 

Some  of  their  spirits  or  demons  were  later  on  promoted  to 
gods,  at  the  head  of  which  was  a  triad  or  trinity — Na  or  Anna, 
the  Sky,  Ea,  the  Earth,  and  Mulge,  the  Lord  of  the  Underworld. 
The  various  attributes  of  deity  were  conceived  of  as  separate 
deities  and  the  sun-god  gradually  rose  to  the  highest  place,  thus 
leading  to  a  solar  worship. 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  439 

The  neighboring  people,  all  of  them  Semitic,  adopted  this 
same  belief;  the  old  trinity  of  Anna,  Ea  and  Mulge  became  Ami, 
Ea  and  Bel  (or  Baal)  who  were  all  children  of  Zica  or  Zicara 
(the  Sky) ;  Ea  was  now  the  god  of  life  and  knowledge,  the  Lord 
of  the  Abyss  and  the  husband  of  Balm  (the  Bohu  of  Gen.  i,  2) ; 
Bel  was  the  Demiurge  and  Bel-merodach  became  the  special  god 
of  Babylon. 

In  accordance  to  Semitic  ideas,  each  god  had  a  female  princi- 
ple or  goddess  as  consort;  each  Baal  had  a  Baalat  ("every  laddie 
has  his  lassie"),  who  was  some  modification  of  Ishtar  or  Astarte. 

Bel  with  his  consort  Serna  headed  the  pantheon. 

Then  there  was  a  moon-god,  a  sun-god,  and  an  air-god,  these, 
together  with  the  previously  mentioned  Anu,  Ea,  Bel  and  Serna, 
making  the  "Seven  Magnificent  Deities." 

The  next  social  rank  was  that  of  the  "Fifty  Great  Gods;" 
then  the  "Three  Hundred  Spirits  of  Heaven"  and  the  "Six  Hun- 
dred Spirits  of  Earth ; ' '  among  the  latter  were  seven  spirits  who 
were  born  without  father  or  mother,  and  these  seven  produced  all 
the  sickness  and  evils  that  prevailed  on  earth. 

The  five  planets  then  known  were  added  to  the  seven  "Mag- 
nificent Deities,"  making  together  the  "Twelve  Chiefs  of  the 
Gods."* 

Pliny,  the  Elder  (born  23  A.D.),  wrote:  "Epigenes,  a  writer 
of  very  great  authority,  informs  us  that  the  Babylonians  have  a 
series  of  observations  on  the  stars  for  a  period  of  seven  hundred 
and  twenty  thousand  years,  inscribed  on  baked  bricks.  Berosus 
and  Critodemes,  who  make  the  period  the  shortest,  give  it  as  four 
hundred  and  ninety  thousand  years.  From  this  statement  it  would 
appear  that  letters  have  been  in  use  from  all  eternity." 

The  Babylonians  originated  many  myths  which  were  adopted 
by  the  Semitic  people  (including  the  ancient  Jews)  as  for  instance 
the  story  of  the  flood  as  later  found  in  the  Bible.  The  Babylonians 
said  that  Tam-zi,  the  "Sun,"  rode  in  his  ark  above  the  rain- 
clouds  during  the  rainy  season;  the  story  of  the  creation  and  the 
fall  of  Adam  and  Eve,  of  Abraham's  attempted  sacrifice  of  Isaac, 
have  all  been  found  in  the  cuneiform  records ;  from  the  Assyrians 
they  were  learned  by  Moses  (or  Ezra). 

*Some  authors  state  that  the  "twelve  great  gods"  (and  goddesses)  were  the  following  Greek 
deities:  Zeus,  Poseidon,  Apollo,  Ares,  Hephaestos,  Hermes,  Here,  Athena,  Artemis,  Aphrodite, 
Hestis  and  Demeter.  This,  however,  is  not  the  generally  accepted  version. 


440  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

The  Babylonian  Hades,  the  Jewish  Sheol  and  the  Greek  Hades 
were  practically  identical. 

One  Babylonian  story  tells  how  Ishtar  descended  into  Hades 
in  search  of  her  dead  husband  Duzi.  Balm,  the  Queen  of  the  Un- 
derworld, afflicted  Ishtar  with  many  diseases  and  kept  her  a 
prisoner  in  Hades  until  the  sun-god,  brother  of  Ishtar,  complained 
to  the  moon-god,  who  sent  a  sphinx  to  Hades ;  the  sphinx  poured 
the  waters  of  life  on  the  imprisoned  Ishtar  and  liberated  her. 

When  Ishtar  entered  Hades,  "the  land  whence  none  return, 
the  place  of  gloom,"  the  queen  of  Hades  commanded  the  warder 
"fling  wide  the  opening  of  the  gate  for  her,  and  as  old  rule  re- 
quires, strip  her  of  all  she  wears!" 

Then  the  warder 

"took  the  mighty  diadem  from  off  her  head 
He  took  away  the  jewelled  earrings  from  her  ears 
He  took  away  the  golden  chains  about  her  neck 
He  took  away  the  ornaments  of  her  breast 
He  took  away  the  studded  girdle  of  her  waist 
He  took  away  her  bracelets  and  anklets 
He  took  away  the  garment  covering  her  nakedness." 

As  soon  as  Ishtar  entered  the  land  whence  none  return,  Al- 
latu  saw  her  Then  Allatu  said : 

"Go,  open  my  gate  and  cast  forth  Ishtar 
With  disease  of  the  eyes  strike  her    *    *    * 
With  disease  of  the  loins  strike  her    *    *    * 
With  disease  of  the  legs  strike  her    *    *    * 
With  disease  of  the  heart  strike  her    *     *    * 
Her  whole  body  strike  with  disease."    *    *    * 

"The  sun-god  went  and  stood  before  his  sire,  the  moon, 
Yea,  in  the  presence  of  King  Ea  flowed  his  tears; 
'Ishtar,'  he  cried,  'from  deeps  of  earth  returns  no  more. 
Since  Ishtar  has  entered  the  land  whence  none  return 
The  bull  has  not  served  the  cow  nor  the  ass  the  she-ass. 
No  male  has  approached  the  female.' 

The  moon-god  then  takes  pity  and  orders  that  Ishtar  be  set 
free;  and  all  usual  sex-life  is  restored  on  earth.  The  above  are 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  441 

extracts  from  the  Assyrian  cuneiform  account  of  Ishtar's  trip  to 
Hades. 

From  this  same  folklore,  no  doubt,  was  derived  the  similar 
Greek  story  of  the  descent  of  Proserpina  to  Hades. 

In  the  Assyrian  (Accadian)  hymns  to  the  gods  are  many 
passages  that  remind  of  the  psalms  of  David :  *  *  My  God,  my  cre- 
ator, take  mine  hands — guide  thou  the  breath  of  my  mouth — 0, 
Lord  of  Light ! — In  heaven,  who  is  high  f  thou  alone  art  high — 0, 
Lord,  my  transgressions  are  many;  great  are  my  sins — ." 

Phoenician 

In  Phoenicia  the  chief  god  was  Baal-Samaim  or  Lord  of  the 
Skies;  his  wife  or  mistress  was  Tanis,  the  Tyrian  Astarte.  (The 
Sidonian  Astarte  was  supposed  to  be  a  virgin  goddess.)  The 
Phoenicians  offered  human  sacrifices  to  Baal  (called  also  Moloch 
in  the  Bible).  To  Moloch  parents  offered  their  first-born  children 
by  burning  them  as  burnt  offerings;  and  during  periods  of  idol- 
atry the  ancient  Jews  made  the  same  kind  of  offerings  to  Moloch. 

Baal  means  lord,  owner,  especially  as  expressing  the  rela- 
tion of  the  husband  to  the  wife;  Baal  is  the  sun-god  or  the  male 
principle  in  nature.  Among  the  Chaldeans,  Bel  (or  Baal)  was 
the  highest  god;  he  divided  the  darkness  from  the  light  and  cut 
the  woman  who  ruled  over  "the  all"  into  two  halves,  out  of  which 
he  then  fashioned  heaven  and  earth. 

The  Phoenicians  called  their  chief  god  "Asshur"  (Asher, 
the  penis,  the  "happy  one"),  "the  king  of  all  the  gods." 

The  Sun  or  heaven-god  had  a  wife,  but  she  was  sometimes 
said  to  be  the  Moon,  and  in  other  records,  the  Earth. 

The  Phoenicians  were  great  travelers  and  traders;  it  is  re- 
corded that  they  went  as  far  as  Wales  to  trade  products  of  their 
own  lands  for  the  tin  of  the  Welsh  mines;  they  introduced  the 
knowledge  of  the  alphabet  to  various  people.  Also,  they  carried 
information  about  their  gods  wherever  they  went,  and  the  Scan- 
dinavians adopted  an  originally  Phoenician  god,  Thor,  who  be- 
came the  Norse  God  of  Storms  or  Thunder-God. 

Among  the  Philistines  prevailed  the  worship  of  Dagon. 
When  Samson  was  captured  by  the  Philistines  they  put  out  his 
eyes  and  put  him  to  work  grinding  corn;  they  took  him  to  the 
temple  of  Dagon,  to  rejoice  over  his  captivity  and  it  was  this 


442  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

temple,  together  with  the  assembled  multitude,  that  he  destroyed 
by  pulling  down  its  pillars  (Judges  xvi). 

Dagon  was  represented  as  half  human  and  half  fish;  he  was 
widely  worshipped  and  many  temples  were  erected  to  him.  He 
had  a  A\7ife  who  was  called  Ashtaroth  or  Atargates;  her  temple 
was  at  Ascalon.  She  was  represented  as  a  fish  with  a  human 
head.  She  was  a  modification  of  Istar  or  Ishtar  or  Astarte. 
The  fish  was  worshipped  as  the  symbol  of  fertility,  both  on  ac- 
count of  its  own  fertility,  a  female  fish  laying  millions  of  eggs, 
and  because  it  lives  in  the  life-giving  and  generating  element- 
water. 

According  to  Philo  the  chief  gods  of  Phoenicia  were  two 
triads — Sun,  Moon  and  Earth,  and  Kivers,  Meadows  and  Waters. 
Mountains  were  sacred  because  they  were  nearer  to  heaven  than 
the  plains;  hence  the  esteem  in  which  "high  places"  were  held 
among  the  Philistines.  The  prophets  waged  war  against  the 
worship  on  the  high  places,  as  recorded  in  the  Bible. 

Philo  (of  Byblus)  said  that  El  was  the  highest  god  of  Byblus 
and  that  Elohim  was  subordinate  to  him ;  El  was  the  first  to  order 
circumcision  and  to  demand  the  sacrifice  of  the  first-born,  either 
an  only  son  or  a  virgin  daughter,  to  the  sun-god.  In  historical 
times  the  sun  was  the  chief  god,  but  he  was  worshipped  in  two 
of  his  attributes;  when  he  was  adored  as  the  god  of  heaven,  the 
earth  was  regarded  as  his  wife ;  but  when  he  was  the  god  of  light, 
the  moon  was  his  wife. 

The  Phoenicians  believed  that  El  wandered  off  over  the  earth 
towards  sunset,  leaving  Byblus  to  the  management  of  his  wife  or 
queen  Baaltis  during  his  absence;  this  accounts  why  her  wor- 
ship was  more  important  in  Byblus  than  that  of  El  himself.  Baal- 
tis becoming  lonesome  accepted  the  attentions  of  a  youthful  lover, 
Eliun  or  Shadid;  but  when  El  returned  he  killed  Eliun  with  his 
sword. 

In  other  places  Astarte,  the  moon-goddess,  was  said  to  be 
the  wife  of  El;  Baaltis  and  Astarte  were  probably  the  same,  and 
their  worships  were  alike,  consisting  largely  of  wild  orgies  of 
sexual  excesses. 

The  religions  of  the  Canaanites  and  Israelites  were  both 
based  on  a  worship  of  the  powers  of  nature,  which  were  consid- 
ered as  antagonistic  to  their  welfare  by  the  ancient  Jews,  while 
the  Canaanites  considered  them  to  be  favorable  and  benign. 


SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP  443 

The  Jews  were  stern  and  moral  in  character,  the  Canaanites, 
tender,  sensuous  and  immoral  in  tendency. 

The  Canaanites  worshipped  Baal  (the  Lord)  and  his  wife  or 
consort  Ashtoreth  or  Asherah  (the  happy  one) ;  there  was  also 
a  masculine  form  of  the  word  Asherah,  Asher  (the  lingam,  the 
happy  one). 

"When  Leah  had  a  son  she  said:  " Happy  am  I  for  the  daugh- 
ters will  call  me  blessed;  and  she  called  his  name  Asher"  (Gen. 
xxx,  13).  The  symbol  for  Asherah  was  the  stem  of  a  tree,  and 
for  Baal  or  Asher  the  cone  of  the  pine.  The  worship  consisted 
mainly  in  licentious  sexual  practices  in  the  "groves"  or  holy 
places,  which  worship  was  also  indulged  in  by  the  ancient  Jews 
during  periods  of  idolatry. 

"And  Israel  abode  in  Shittim,  and  the  people  began  to  com- 
mit whoredom  with  the  daughters  of  Moab.  And  they  called  the 
people  unto  the  sacrifices  of  their  gods"  (Num.  xxv,  1-3). 

During  the  idolatry  under  King  Manasseh  the  Israelites  went 
back  to  their  former  half-pagan  idea  of  Jehovah,  and  they  as- 
cribed to  him  a  consort  or  wife  to  whom  they  gave  the  name 
"Queen  of  Heaven."  They  wanted  their  god  to  enjoy  the  same 
privileges  that  all  the  other  gods  of  the  neighboring  tribes  had, 
the  sexual  enjoyments  that  a  wife  can  give. 

Persia 

Hermippus  recorded  that  Zoroaster  lived  about  five  thousand 
years  before  the  Trojan  war,  the  date  of  which  was  believed  to 
be  about  two  thousand  years  B.C.,  or  about  four  thousand  years 
ago;  this  would  make  the  age  of  Zoroaster  about  nine  thousand 
years  ago. 

But  this  date  depends  on  the  same  disposition  of  the  mind 
of  early  man  to  exaggerate  the  ages  in  former  times,  as  we  see 
in  the  ages  of  the  patriarchs  in  the  Bible. 

Xanthus  said  that  Zoroaster  lived  six  thousand  years  before 
Xerxes ;  Aristotle  also  said  that  he  lived  at  a  very  early  date.  All 
ancient  writers  agreed  that  he  was  a  real  and  not  a  mythical 
character. 

Modern  scholars  accept  the  latter  conclusion  but  place  his 
age  at  about  the  time  of  Moses  (1400  B.C.)  or  even  later,  about 
1000  B.C. 


444  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

Zoroaster  (or  Zarathustra)  was  the  founder  of  the  Persian 
or  Iranian  mythology  or  religion.  The  main  idea  of  his  theology 
was  that  there  was  a  dualism,  Good  and  Bad,  that  were  at  ever- 
lasting war  with  each  other.  The  sacred  books  are  the  Gathas, 
which  together  constitute  the  Zend-Avesta.  At  the  beginning  there 
were  two  spirits — Ahura-Mazdao  (Ormuzd)  represented  Good, 
and  Angro-Manyush  (Ahriman)  was  Evil.  Both  spirits  were 
demiurges,  or  creators.  The  Parsees  say  that  both  of  these  gods 
evolved  themselves  out  of  primordial  ooze;  this  seems  to  be  an 
attempt  at  explaining  their  genesis  in  a  natural  manner. 

Ormuzd  was  Light  and  Life,  Law  and  Order,  everything  that 
is  noble,  good  and  true.  Ahriman  on  the  other  hand  was  Dark- 
ness, Death,  Evil,  everything  that  is  filthy  and  objectionable  in 
the  world.  Plutarch,  a  Greek  writer,  said  in  regard  to  this  Zoro- 
astrian  theory  of  an  evil  deity,  as  well  as  of  a  good  one,  that,  "if 
nothing  can  happen  without  cause,  and  good  can  not  furnish  cause 
for  evil,  it  follows  that  the  nature  of  evil,  as  of  good,  must  have 
an  origin  and  principle  of  its  own." 

Each  had  his  followers,  attendant  spirits  who  were  practi- 
cally the  armies  of  the  two  lords ;  whenever  they  met,  these  two 
armies  would  fight  for  the  possession  of  the  human  souls  after 
death. 

After  death  the  soul  of  the  departed  came  to  a  bridge  over 
which  lay  the  way  to  heaven;  here  a  record  of  his  life  was  made 
by  an  accountant;  if  the  soul  had  a  good  record  it  was  per- 
mitted to  cross  the  bridge  and  go  to  heaven,  but  if  evil  predom- 
inated in  the  account,  it  was  sent  to  hell ;  if  the  record  was  evenly 
balanced  the  soul  went  to  an  intermediate  place  which  was  a  kind 
of  purgatory  where  it  remained  to  the  final  day  of  judgment. 

Man  can  help  Ormuzd,  or  Good,  by  being  pious  and  upright, 
or  he  can  help  Ahriman,  or  Evil,  by  being  wicked.  In  this  theol- 
ogy there  is  little  or  nothing  of  a  sexual  nature;  in  fact,  it  is 
singularly  free  from  the  usual  conceptions  of  those  early  times. 

The  Parsees  worship  Zarathustra,  and  the  sun  and  fire  as 
symbols  of  Good ;  on  getting  up  in  the  morning  a  Parsee  first  says 
his  prayers  to  the  sun;  he  then  rubs  a  little  holy  water,  called 
nirang  (cow  urine),  on  his  forehead  to  protect  him  against  the  in- 
fluence of  the  devas  or  evil  spirits,  the  attendants  of  Ahriman; 
for  this,  nirang  is  an  infallible  specific. 

During  the  captivity  of  the  Jews  they  adopted  some  of  the 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


445 


Zoroastrian  demonology,  including  a  belief  in  Ahriman  (Beelze- 
bub, Satan),  the  Spirit  of  Evil;  and  the  belief  in  the  devil  was 
adopted  in  turn  from  the  Jews  by  the  early  Christians.  So  also, 
a  belief  in  purgatory ;  although  a  form  of  this  idea  was  also  known 
to  the  Greeks,  from  which  it  may  have  been  taken  by  the  Christians. 

Egypt 

The  Egyptian  religion  is  difficult  to  explain,  because  it  lasted 
nearly  5000  years  and  underwent  many  changes ;  then  there  were 


Fig.  258. — Justice;  a  modern  abstract  idea,  symbolized  or  personified  as  a  goddess  with 

sword  and  scales. 


many  dialects  so  that  the  same  deities  wrere  known  by  different 
names;  different  cities  had  different  cults;  etc.  All  of  this  gave 
rise  to  much  confusion. 

It  is  held  by  some  that  the  Egyptian  religion  was  a  mono- 
theism to  the  initiated,  while  to  the  masses  it  was  an  almost  un- 
limited polytheism;  this  is  explained,  that  the  different  attributes 
of  the  one  god  were  personified  by  various  symbolic  gods;  that 
many  of  the  gods  and  goddesses  were  simply  personified  ideas,  as 
when  we  figure  Justice  like  a  woman  holding  a  scale,  or  Piety  as 
a  woman  kneeling  and  supporting  the  crucified  and  dead  Christ. 


446  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

However,  the  masses  conceived  these  attributes  as  separate 
deities.  Most  of  the  male  deities  had  mates,  or  female  deities  or 
goddesses,  but  these  were  of  subordinate  rank  and  totally  unim- 
portant, being  imagined  only  for  the  comfort  and  pleasure  of  the 
corresponding  gods  who  would  have  been  lonesome  if  they  could 
not  enjoy  occasional  sexual  delights. 

There  were  two  main  orders  of  deities,  the  group  of  Ra  and 
the  group  of  Osiris.  Ra  is  the  sun;  Amen-Ra  signified  the  intel- 
lectual attributes  of  Ra;  his  group  consists  of  Ra,  Mentu,  Atmu 
and  Shu.  Mentu  and  Atmu  are  merely  a  division  of  Ra  into  his 
two  phases,  the  rising  and  the  setting  sun,  the  sun  of  the  upper 
and  the  sun  of  the  lower  world,  while  Shu  is  the  Light  of  the  sun ; 
Shu  is  the  son  of  Ra,  and  his  wife,  Tefnet,  is  the  daughter  of  Ra. 
Marriages  of  brothers  and  sisters  were  proper  among  the  Egyp- 
tians, so  the  gods  might  be  expected  to  marry  their  sisters  also, 
because  men  always  imagined  their  gods  to  be  like  themselves. 

The  Osiris  group  was  not  related  to  the  Ra  group.  Seb  and 
Nut  had  a  son  Osiris,  who  became  the  main  god  of  this  family 
connection ;  he  married  his  sister  Isis  and  they  had  a  child,  Horus 
(or  Harpokrat).  Horus  married  Hathor.  Hathor  and  Isis  were 
nearly  alike  and  the  cow  was  sacred  to  both;  also,  both  were  at 
times  represented  as  a  cow. 

Osiris  was  the  Sun  and  Isis  was  the  moon.  Osiris  was  the 
masculine  begetting  principle  in  nature;  to  show  his  power  and 
vigor  in  this  capacity,  he  was  sometimes  represented  with  three 
phalli;  Isis  was  the  feminine  principle;  their  most  sacred  symbol 
was  the  lotus  with  red  blossoms ;  symbolic  of  the  rising  and  setting 
sun,  because  it  opened  at  sunrise  and  closed  at  sunset.  Both 
Osiris  and  Isis  were  supposed  to  have  been  originally  Greek  de- 
ities, hence  this  order  of  deities  was  not  related  to  the  Ra  family ; 
they  were,  one  might  say,  naturalized  foreigners.  The  Egyptian 
religion  was  sombre,  sad,  despondent,  gloomy;  at  their  festivals 
a  coffin  was  brought  in  as  a  reminder  of  the  ultimate  destiny — 
death. 

Horus  is  said  to  have  introduced  the  more  cheerful  Greek 
views  of  religion. 

Ammon  was  the  local  god  of  Thebes ;  he  was  often  represented 
with  the  head  of  a  ram.  Various  cities  in  Egypt  worshipped  their 
gods  under  different  animal  shapes,  and  the  inhabitants  of  such 
cities  could  not  eat  the  animals  like  their  gods  in  shape.  It  is 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


447 


probable  that  this  animal  worship  was  but  a  survival  of  early 
totemism. 

The  god  Ptah  or  Phtha  was  the  god  who  prepared  the  mat- 
ter from  which  Ra  or  Amen-Ra  created  the  world;  Ra  was  the 
sun-god,  the  soul  of  the  world,  of  the  masses  of  Egyptians.  Chnum 
was  the  breath  of  Ra,  which  stirred  the  primeval  waters. 

Thoth  or  Tauut  was  the  measurer  of  time  and  weights. 
He  was  said  to  be  the  husband  of  Ma't,  the  goddess  of  Truth. 
He  was  the  reputed  author  of  the  Egyptian  books  on 
medicine,  and  of  the  "Ritual  of  the  Dead."  To  this  god  the 


Fig.  259.— The  Worship  of  Seti,  the 
Creator;  from  a  sculpture  in  the  ruins  of 
Karnak,  Egypt. 


Fig.  260. — The  goddess  Netpe, 
bearing  the  ankh,  or  symbol  of  life 
and  the  feminine  sceptre. 


Egyptians  ascribed  forty-two  books  on  medical  practice,  but 
Seleucus  ascribed  to  him  twenty  thousand  books,  and  Manetho, 
thirty-five  thousand,  five  hundred  and  twenty-five  books.  He  is 
particularly  concerned  in  securing  the  welfare  of  the  souls  in  the 
underworld,  wherefore  his  worship  was  very  important  in  connec- 
tion with  the  funeral  rites. 

Thoth  was  the  moon-god,  and  was  called  the  "tongue  of  Ra," 
though  Ra  is  also  said  to  have  created  the  world  by  a  word  of 
command.  Thoth,  Thoti  or  Tet  was  the  same  as  the  Greek  god 


448  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

Hermes,  the  god  of  letters  or  learning;  he  was  ordinarily  repre- 
sented with  the  head  of  an  ibis  and  as  carrying  a  tablet  and  a  reed 
pen  in  his  hands,  but  sometimes  also  with  the  uas.  Among  his 
titles  were  "lord  of  truth,"  "the  chief  in  the  path  of  the  dead," 
and  the  ' l  scribe  of  the  truth. ' '  It  was  his  special  office  to  be  pres- 
ent in  Amenti  (underworld)  when  the  souls  were  judged,  to  see 
their  deeds  weighed  in  the  balance  and  to  record  the  result.  It 
was  also  he,  who  in  the  realms  below  wrote  for  the  good  souls, 
with  his  own  fingers,  the  "Book  of  Respirations"  which  protects 
them,  sustains  them,  gives  them  life,  and  causes  them  to  breathe 
with  the  souls  of  the  gods  forever  and  ever.  Thoth  was  an  author 
of  many  medical  books,  and  of  the  "Ritual  of  the  Dead"  which 
treated  of  the  funeral  rites. 

Only  Osiris  and  Isis  were  worshipped  throughout  Egypt.  All 
the  other  gods  and  goddesses  were  of  a  local  character. 

The  symbolism  of  the  Egyptians  was  very  phallic ;  many  gods 
showed  a  penis  or  carried  a  penis  sceptre  (Fig.  259).  Many  a 
goddess  was  figured  with  the  sacred  feminine  triangle  (Fig.  260), 
or  showed  her  bare  breasts,  or  carried  the  female  sceptre  of  the 
profile  breast.  And  many  a  deity  carried  the  ankh  or  symbol  of 
life ;  and  many  of  the  gods  are  represented  as  masturbating. 

Yet  with  this  excessive  display  of  sex  symbolism  the  Egyp- 
tians did  not  cohabit  with  women  in  their  temples,  as  did  the 
Greeks. 

"None  of  the  Christian  virtues,"  said  Chabas,  "is  forgotten 
in  the  recorded  Egyptian  code  of  morality ;  piety,  charity,  gentle- 
ness, self-command  in  word  and  action,  chastity,  protection  of 
the  weak,  benevolence  towards  the  humble,  deference  to  superiors, 
respect  to  property  in  its  minutest  details,  all  is  expressed  there." 

The  Osiris  Myth  or  Mysteries 

Very  early  in  savage  communities  certain  mysteries  were 
kept  from  the  general  knowledge  of  the  public  and  imparted  only 
to  members  of  certain  secret  societies;  these  organizations  cele- 
brated and  perpetuated  certain  stories  about  gods  or  goddesses, 
as  for  instance  in  Greece  the  Eleusynian  mysteries  about  Demeter 
and  Proserpina.  So  there  were  mysteries  in  ancient  Egypt  about 
Osiris  and  Isis. 

Osiris  was  the  Good  Principle;  he  was  at  enmity  with  his 
brother  Seth  (Typhon),  the  Bad  Principle,  and  the  two  were  in 


SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP  449 

endless  conflict  for  the  salvation  or  destruction  of  human  souls. 
Seth  schemed  to  destroy  Osiris,  so  he  made  a  beautiful  chest,  and 
at  a  celebration  offered  to  present  it  to  anyone  who  could  lie 
down  in  it.  When  Osiris  tried  it,  Seth  closed  the  lid  and  had  it 
nailed  up  and  then  threw  it  in  the  Nile. 

Isis  then  wandered  about  Egypt  hunting  her  husband  Osiris. 
(The  same  folklore  myth  that  we  find  in  the  Greek  story  of  De- 
meter,  or  in  the  Assyrian  myth  of  Ishtar.)  She  finally  found  the 
chest  but  it  was  empty;  Seth  had  found  it  and  taken  out  the 
body  of  Osiris  which  he  cut  into  little  bits  which  he  scattered  all 
over  Egypt.  Isis  hunted  the  fragments  and  buried  each  one  on 
the  spot  where  she  found  it,  which  accounts  for  the  numerous 
graves  of  Osiris  in  Egypt.  She  found  all  the  parts  except  the 
phallus,  the  genital  organs ;  so  she  had  a  realistic  model  of  these 
parts  made  and  dedicated  them  in  a  temple,  where  they  were 
worshipped,  and  this  accounts  for  the  introduction  of  phallic  wor- 
ship in  Egypt.  This  Osiris  myth  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  Osiris 
Mysteries,  or  the  teachings  of  one  of  the  secret  societies  of 
antiquity. 

Greece 

Cronus  was  the  youngest  of  the  Titans,  the  children  of  Ura- 
nus (Sky)  and  Gaea  (Earth).  After  he  had  castrated  his  father 
Sky,  he  became  the  ruling  god;  he  married  his  sister  Rhea.  It 
had  been  foretold  to  him  in  an  oracle  that  he  would  be  deposed 
by  one  of  his  own  children,  so  he  swallowed  them  one  after  an- 
other as  soon  as  they  were  born.  He  swallowed  Hestia,  Demeter, 
Hera,  Hades  and  Poseidon.  At  last  Rhea  gave  birth  to  Zeus 
(Jupiter),  but  she  hid  him  and  handed  to  Cronus  a  rock  wrapped 
in  swaddling  clothes,  which  Cronus  swallowed.  When  Zeus  grew 
up  he  administered  an  emetic  to  his  father  Cronus  and  saved  all 
of  his  brothers  and  sisters  alive.  Among  them,  also,  Cronus  threw 
up  the  stone;  this  stone  was  kept  at  Delphi,  and  divine  honors 
were  paid  to  it. 

Similar  swallowing  stories,  probably  derived  from  the  same 
stock  of  folklore,  were  found  among  the  Bushmen,  Kaffirs,  Basutos, 
Indians  of  Guinea,  etc. 

The  Romans  called  Cronus  Saturn;  he  was  the  god  of  agri- 
culture, hence  he  was  represented  with  a  sickle ;  in  astrology  and 


450 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


alchemy  his  symbol  is  a  male  cross  with  a  sickle,  the  same  as  is 
now  used  to  express  neuter  forms  in  animal  and  plant  life  (see 
p.  531). 

Our  "Father  Time"  with  his  scythe  is  Saturn  modernized. 
Fig.  261  is  entitled  "The  Flight  of  Time;"  old  Father  Time  is 
hurrying  an  unwilling  victim  along. 

Saturn's  wife  was  Ops  (Plenty),  an  earth-goddess  of  crops 
and  harvest ;  she  was  the  goddess  of  property,  wealth,  riches  and 
powrer ;  also,  she  was  the  patroness  of  husbandry,  the  benefactress 
of  farmers.  The  festival  of  the  Opalia,  in  her  honor,  occurred  on 
December  19th  and  20th. 

In  honor  of  Saturn  the  festival  of  the  Saturnalia  was  held; 


Fig.  261.— Tempus  fugit  (Time 
Flies),  and  drags  his  unwilling  vic- 
tim with  him. 


Fig.  262.— Our  "Father  Time"  is  de- 
rived from  Saturn  (Cronus)  by  mistake; 
the  word  Chronos  (time)  and  Cronus  (Sat- 
urn) were  confounded. 


during  this  festival  his  feet  were  untied,  but  otherwise  they  were 
kept  tied  so  that  the  god  could  not  run  away. 

Zeus  was  the  same  as  the  Vedic  god  Dyaus  pitar;  in  Etrusca 
or  ancient  Greece  he  was  known  as  Tina;  in  Rome  as  Jupiter. 
The  Greeks  addressed  him  in  their  prayers  as  Zevn-drep  (Zeupater), 
"Zeus  the  Father."  In  both  Greece  and  Eome  he  always  re- 
tained the  attributes  of  ruler  over  the  natural  phenomena,  the 
changes  of  the  heavens,  the  variety  of  seasons,  etc.  He  was 
Jupiter  Lucretius,  the  god  of  the  bright  sky,  as  well  as  Jupiter 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  451 

Pluvius,  the  god  of  the  rainy  sky ;  the  god  of  light  and  of  darkness, 
of  the  thunder  and  of  rain. 

In  Greece  he  remained  a  nature  god,  and  many  sexual  ad- 
ventures were  related  of  him,  but  in  Home  a  more  moral  char- 
acter was  attributed  to  him,  and  he  was  worshipped  as  a  fatherly 
ruler  of  mankind;  the  guardian  and  protector  of  the  higher  in- 
terests of  human  society,  and  the  especial  guardian  of  the  sanc- 
tity of  oaths.  The  Romans  swore  "by  Jove,"  and  we  still  do  so 
to  this  day. 

The  word-stem  of  Jupiter  is  "Jov"  (pronounced  Yohv), 
which  reminds  of  the  Jewish  name  for  God — Yahwe  or  Jhov. 

Zeus,  by  whatever  name  he  was  called,  was  heaven  or  sky; 
Leto  was  the  same  as  Gea  or  Earth.  In  Greece  Hera  (Latin, 
Juno)  was  his  official  or  chief  wife,  and  therefore  the  Greeks  rec- 
ognized Earth  or  Leto  merely  as  one  of  Jupiter's  concubines. 

Homer  represented  Zeus  as  a  powerful  but  good-natured  and 
amorous  deity  and  tells  many  stories  of  his  amours,  but  none  of 
lycanthropous  changes,  or  transformations  to  animal  forms,  to 
carry  out  his  amours,  such  as  are  told  by  Hesiod. 

Zeus  combines  many  features  of  early  and  late  Greek  periods, 
and  these  stories  do  not  always  seem  to  be  consistent  with  each 
other;  the  animal  stories  told  by  Hesiod  are  probably  reminders 
of  totem  times;  Zeus  is  called  the  "aegis-bearing,"  that  is,  clad 
with  a  goat  pelt;  this  seems  to  refer  to  the  Greek  goat-clan,  to 
which  also  Athena  belonged  (see  p.  220). 

Zeus  was  very  profligate,  and  the  number  of  his  inamoratas 
was  legion;  not  only  goddesses  and  nymphs  but  also  human 
queens,  and  ordinary  daughters  of  men,  if  only  they  were  fair- 
looking,  appealed  to  his  taste ;  but  his  service  or  worship  was  not 
of  a  phallic  type,  nor  were  phallic  symbols  employed  in  connection 
with  Zeus  as  they  were  with  Dionysus. 

Poseidon  (Latin:  Neptune)  pursued  Demeter  to  commit  rape; 
she  changed  herself  into  a  mare  and  fled,  but  the  god  pursued  her, 
and  as  a  result  she  gave  birth  to  the  winged  horse  Arion.  This  is 
a  similar  story  to  the  Hindu  tale  about  Purusha  and  the  origin  of 
the  various  animals. 

Mercury,  or  Hermes,  had  many  children  by  mortal  women 
but  only  one  by  the  goddess  Aphrodite  (Venus) ;  this  one  was 
named  after  both  his  parents — Hermaphroditus.  Mercury  car- 


452  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

ried  the  caduceus,  a  male  sceptre  around  which  two  serpents  were 
twined,  signifying  the  lingam  erect  from  sexual  passion. 

Hermes  (Greek)  was  represented  as  a  pillar  supporting  a 
bearded  head,  and  with  a  phallus  on  the  front ;  such  pillars  stood 
all  over  the  city  of  Athens.  Hermes  was  the  god  of  fertility  and 
reproductive  power;  he  also  bestowed  wealth  in  flocks  and  herds. 
Like  the  sileni,  Hermes,  or  Mercury,  was  an  ardent  pursuer  of 
nymphs. 

Mars  was  the  Roman  god  of  war ;  his  name  is  supposed  to  be 
derived  from  mors,  death;  but  some  say  from  mas,  male;  his  spear 
was  a  thunderbolt  and  his  shield  a  storm-cloud.  As  a  heaven-god 
and  giver  of  rain  he  presided  over  fertility  and  increase ;  for  this 
reason,  probably,  he  was  worshipped,  together  with  Juno  the  god- 
dess of  women  and  child-birth,  in  religious  ceremonies  connected 
with  marriages,  by  Roman  matrons  at  the  festival  of  the 
Matronalia. 

A  goddess  named  Nerio  was  sometimes  mentioned  as  his  wife. 
There  was  also  a  goddess  Bellona,  goddess  of  war,  who  was  some- 
times said  to  be  a  daughter  or  sister  of  Mars,  at  other  times  a 
wife  of  Mars.  Greek  mythology  recounts  quite  a  number  of 
amours  of  Mars  with  Venus,  the  wife  of  Vulcan  (Gr.  Hephaes- 
tus), and  he  had  a  number  of  children  by  several  human  women. 

As  opposed  to  these  warlike  deities,  Irene  was  the  Greek  god- 
dess of  peace. 

The  Greeks  relate  how  once  Ares  (Mars)  gave  Demeter  oc- 
casion to  be  jealous,  although  she  was  not  his  wife,  and  to  con- 
vince her  that  she  had  no  cause  for  jealousy,  he  castrated  a  ram 
and  showed  her  the  testicles,  saying  that  they  were  his  own.  The 
same  story,  however,  was  also  related  of  Zeus  and  Demeter. 

Mars  was  said  to  be  the  son  of  Zeus  and  Juno. 

Vulcan  (Gr.  Hephaestus)  was  the  God  of  Fire;  the  volcanoes 
were  supposed  to  be  the  chimneys  of  his  forge.  Aphrodite  (Ve- 
nus) was  his  wife,  although  some  authors  mention  Maia  (or 
Majesta)  as  his  wife.  At  a  festival  called  Volconalia  animals  were 
thrown  into  the  fire  as  sacrifices;  in  early  times  the  victims  were 
human  beings.  Caeculus  and  Servius  Tullius  were  called  "sons 
of  Vulcan"  because  their  mothers  had  been  impregnated  by  sparks 
flying  from  the  anvil  of  Vulcan;  some  say,  by  sparks  flying  from 
the  fire  of  the  hearth. 

Pluto  was  the  god  of  the  underworld  in  Greek  mythology ;  he 


SEX    AND   SEX   WORSHIP  453 

was  also  called  Hades.  He  was  a  son  of  Cronus  and  Rhea,  and 
was  a  brother  of  Zeus  and  Poseidon.  His  wife  was  Proserpina, 
daughter  of  Demeter,  whom  he  carried  off  by  force,  and  whose 
adventures  gave  rise  to  the  Eleusanian  mysteries.  The  under- 
world wras  called  Hades,  after  the  god  who  presided  over  it,  but 
in  it  the  dead  reposed  in  a  lethargic  existence,  no  idea  of  either 
punishment  or  reward  after  death  being  held  by  the  early  Greeks 
or  Romans. 

Pluto  therefore  has  no  similarity  to  the  Christian  devil,  be- 
cause he  is  only  the  guardian  of  the  souls  after  death;  he  is  not 
a  tempter  or  seducer  of  mankind,  since  all,  the  good  as  well  as  the 
bad,  finally  came  to  rest  in  his  care. 

Cupid  or  Amor  (Gr.  Eros)  was  the  god  of  love  and  desire; 
hence  such  terms  as  amorous,  erotic,  etc.  He  was  a  son  of  Zeus 
and  Gea,  or  of  Zeus  and  Venus,  or  of  Zeus  and  Artemis,  or  of 
heaven  and  earth,  or  of  Night  and  Erebus.  The  ancients  said  he 
was  the  most  beautiful  of  all  the  gods;  he  was  generally  repre- 
sented as  a  child  with  wings,  and  with  bow  and  arrows.  He  was 
a  nature-god  presiding  over  love  as  seen  in  sexual  passion  in  hu- 
man beings.  He  was  a  constant  attendant  on  Venus  (Fig.  35). 

It  is  not  necessary  to  describe  in  detail  all  the  Greek  and 
Roman  gods,  but  it  is  desirable  that  we  become  acquainted  with  the 
most  licentious  one  of  them — Dionysus  (Latin,  Bacchus),  the  god 
of  the  vine  (or  wine),  sometimes  called  the  god  of  drunkenness 
and  debauchery ;  he  was  the  son  of  Semele,  a  daughter  of  Cadmus, 
the  king  of  Thebes,  by  Zeus. 

He  was  also  the  god  of  the  fertilizing  spring  rains,  and  there- 
fore of  the  resuscitation  of  life  in  spring,  after  the  winter  sleep. 

His  mother  died  while  he  was  an  infant,  so  Hermes  (Mer- 
cury) brought  him  to  the  nymphs  at  Nysa,  by  whom  he  was  reared. 

When  he  grew  up  he  traveled  extensively,  to  introduce  the 
culture  of  the  vine  and  the  making  of  wine,  and  incidently,  he 
taught  the  women  how  to  indulge  in  the  wilder  orgiastic  super- 
sensual  excesses,  such  as  were  taught  later  on  in  special  schools  in 
Rome,  to  slave  girls  who  then  commanded  specially  high  prices  in 
the  slave  markets  from  luxury-loving  purchasers.  These  sexual 
excesses  have  been  kept  alive  in  the  memories  of  men  and  women 
by  the  practices  in  the  houses  of  prostitution;  they  are  the  so- 
called  " perversions"  of  our  own  times,  but  since  they  are  trans- 
mitted by  teaching  from  generation  to  generation,  they  cannot  be 


454  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

said  to  be  due  to  "perverted  instincts."  They  were  the  popular 
themes  of  the  paintings  in  the  bathrooms  of  Plerculaneum  and 
Pompeii  and  other  Roman  villas.  These  practices  constituted  the 
main  elements  of  the  festivals  in  honor  of  this  god,  the  Dionysia, 
or  Bacchanalia. 

Pentheus,  king  of  Thebes,  opposed  the  aberrations  introduced 
by  Dionysus,  but  he  was  killed  by  his  wife,  who  mistook  him  for 
a  wild  animal,  during  one  of  her  frenzied  spells. 

Lycurgus,  a  Thracian  king,  also  attempted  to  oppose  the 
practices  taught  by  Dionysus,  and  attacked  Dionysus,  who  saved 
himself  by  jumping  into  the  sea  where  the  nymph  Thetis  received 
him  kindly. 

Where  Dionysus  was  favorably  received  he  rewarded  this 
by  instructions  in  the  raising  of  the  vine  and  the  making  of  wine. 


Fig.  263. — Erigone,  daughter  of  Icarius,  priest  of  Bacchus,  commits  suicide. 

He  taught  Icarius  how  to  prepare  this  drink  but  Icarius  told  some 
ignorant  peasants  and  laborers  about  it,  and  when  they  made 
wine  and  got  drunk,  they  imagined  that  they  had  been  poisoned, 
and  they  killed  Icarius  and  threw  his  body  into  a  ravine;  his 
daughter  Erigone  sought  him,  and  her  dog  discovered  his  body, 
whereupon  she  hanged  herself;  but  modern  artists,  realizing  that 
in  art  one  who  hung  himself  or  herself  is  a  repulsive  sight,  substi- 
tuted suicide  by  poisoned  wine,  which  looks  better.  However,  at 
the  festivals  in  honor  of  Dionysus,  trees  were  decorated  by  hang- 
ing small  images  of  Erigone  on  them  (Fig.  263). 

The  features  of  the  Dionysus  cult  to  be  remembered,  are  the 
drunkenness  and  the  sexual  excesses,  of  which  more  will  be  said 
under  "festivals." 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


455 


Dionysus  became  acquainted  with  Ariadne,  at  Naxos,  where 
Theseus  had  abandoned  her;  she  became  the  wife  of  Dionysus, 
and  the  celebration  of  this  marriage  formed  a  prominent  and  ex- 
uberant feature  of  the  festivals  in  honor  of  Dionysus. 

The  leopard  was  sacred  to  Dionysus ;  for  this  reason  Ariadne 
is  usually  represented  as  lying  on  a  leopard  skin  rug,  or  as  riding 
on  a  leopard.  The  goat,  ass  and  bull  were  also  sacred  symbols  of 
this  god  (Fig.  264). 

The  stories  about  him  are  probably  Indian  (Hindu)  in  their 


Fig.  264. — "Ariadne  and  the  Leopard,"  by  Danneker. 

origin,  King  Soma,  an  intoxicating  Hindu  drink,  being  the  origin 
of  them. 

Dionysus  was  worshipped  at  Attica  with  rude  and  very  gross 
symbolism,  every  variety  of  exuberant  sexual  aberration  being 
perpetrated  in  his  temples  in  his  honor.  His  symbols  were  the 
thyrsus  sceptre,  a  rod  surmounted  by  a  thyrsus  or  bunch  of  grapes, 
or  a  pine  cone,  but  the  main  one  was  the  image  of  the  phallus 
which  was  carried  by  men  and  women  in  the  processions  in  honor 
of  Dionysus,  and  very  prominently  displayed  in  his  temples. 

In  art  he  was  represented  as  wearing  an  ivy  wreath  and  car- 
rying the  thyrsus;  also  frequently  as  a  pillar,  sometimes  with  a 


456  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

human  head,  but  more  frequently  with  merely  a  phallus  in  front. 

Dionysus  was  supposed  to  go  away  in  the  fall  and  to  return 
in  spring;  when  he  came  back  in  spring  all  nature  revived,  the 
plants  sprouted  and  animals  mated ;  this  gave  rise  to  the  festival 
called  the  Greater  Dionysia,  which  festival  still  continues  as  our 
Easter  festival,  with  the  same  giving  of  ornamental  eggs,  etc. 
As  usual,  the  church  has  put  a  Christian  explanation  on  this  fes- 
tival; instead  of  the  old  folklore  stories  of  a  return  of  Demeter 
or  Persephone,  or  of  Ishtar,  or  Dionysus  from  the  winter's  sleep 
in  the  underworld,  the  festival  is  said  now  to  celebrate  the  resur- 
rection of  Jesus  after  his  trip  to  the  underworld,  or  to  hell. 

Pan  or  Priapus,  as  god  of  fertility,  has  already  been  men- 
tioned; this  god  was  worshipped  more  especially  among  rural 
communities  in  a  sort  of  harvest  festival  which  was  accompanied 
by  extravagantly  wild  sensual  and  sexual  indulgences. 

India 

Probably  in  no  country  has  the  worship  of  the  powers  of  na- 
ture as  symbolized  by  the  genital  organs  of  man  and  woman,  been 
carried  to  greater  excess  than  in  India. 

Veda,  in  Sanskrit,  means  knowledge,  more  particularly,  in- 
spired knowledge.  The  oldest  Hindu  sacred  writings,  or  Bible, 
includes  the  Eig-Veda,  the  Sama-Veda,  the  Yagur-Veda  and  the 
Atharva-Veda,  which  are  generally  spoken  of  as  the  Vedas.  They 
are  written  in  verse  (see  extracts  on  p.  111).  To  the  Sanhita  (col- 
lection of  hymns)  of  each  Veda  was  added  a  Brahmana,  or  prose 
commentary;  Upanishads,  or  speculative  treatises;  Sutras,  short 
sentences  or  aphorisms;  Vedangas,  books  on  pronunciation,  me- 
tre, grammar,  vocabularies,  astronomy  and  ceremonial,  all  of 
which  are  necessary  to  a  full  understanding  of  the  Vedas.  The 
Vedas  are  supernatural  or  divine,  but  the  other  books  mentioned 
are  human. 

The  Vedanta  are  philosophical  treatises  on  religion;  the 
modern  ones  are  pantheistic. 

The  Puranas  are  legendary  accounts  of  the  universe;  they 
emphasize  some  of  the  special  Brahmanic  theories,  but  they  are 
comparatively  modern ;  probably  not  over  one  thousand  years  old. 

The  Tantras  are  later  than  the  Puranas ;  they  are  the  sacred 
writings  of  the  Saktas,  who  are  Hindu  worshippers  of  the  wives 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  457 

of  the  gods  of  the  Trimurti.  The  Saktas,  therefore,  are  really 
worshippers  of  the  feminine  powers  of  nature.  This  worship  ap- 
plies especially  to  the  sakti  of  Siva,  under  any  of  her  various 
forms,  as  Parvati,  Devi,  Kali,  Bhavani,  Durga,  etc.  This  wor- 
ship is  already  indicated  in  the  Puranas  but  is  much  elaborated 
in  the  Tantras,  where  many  magic  and  mystic  rites,  consisting 
largely  in  gross  and  licentious  practices,  according  to  our  stand- 
ards, are  taught. 

The  Mahabharata  is  a  very  ancient  epic  poem,  of  about  100 
B.C.,  which  contains  some  statements  that  show  its  antiquity  by 
reference,  for  instance,  to  a  polyandric  union  of  the  princess 
Draaupadi  with  the  Pandu  or  Pandava  princes. 

In  very  ancient  times  the  Hindus  worshipped  Dyaus  Pitar 
(Zeus  pater,  or  Jupiter),  together  with  Varuna,  the  all-embracing 
firmament,  Mitra  (or  Mithra),  the  light  of  day,  and  Surya,  the 
life-giving  sun. 

Some  of  the  oldest  myths  in  India  say  that  heaven  and  earth 
begat  all  the  other  gods,  which  is  the  same  folklore  stock  with  which 
we  have  already  become  acquainted  in  the  Greek  Bible  by  Homer 
and  Hesiod. 

Prajavati  is  sometimes  ranked  with  the  gods  of  the  Trimurti, 
and  is  then  called  the  Fourth  God  ("Four  Great  Gods"),  but 
others  say  he  is  the  creator  of  all  the  gods  and  of  the  world 
(probably  identifying  him  thus  with  Heaven). 

Also,  in  olden  time  the  phallus  was  not  as  promiscuously 
displayed  and  adored  as  now,  for  Urvasi,  according  to  a  Vedic 
myth,  was  not  allowed  to  see  her  husband  Pururavas  naked,  "for 
such  is  the  custom  of  women."  The  same  idea  is  told  in  the  story 
of  Amor  and  Psyche,  by  the  Greeks. 

In  the  oldest  of  the  Vedas,  the  Big- Veda,  probably  com- 
posed from  1400  B.C.  on,  but  at  first  orally  transmitted,  Indra 
(Fig.  2)  was  the  god  of  the  Sky,  the  Atmosphere,  the  Cloud- 
Compeller,  the  god  of  thunder,  or  thunder;  he  was  the  chief  god, 
who  in  company  with  Agni,  or  Fire,  was  adored  by  the  Hindus. 
In  those  early  days,  the  women  were  held  in  great  esteem  and 
suttee  was  unknown;  the  Ganges  was  not  yet  sacred;  and  the 
Trimurti  were  as  yet  unknown. 

The  Trimurti  (Trinity)  were  the  Three  Great  Gods,  some- 
times grouped  with  Prajavati  as  a  Fourth,  to  constitute  the 
"Four  Great  Gods."  Each  of  the  Trimurti  Gods  (Brahma, 


458  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

Vishnu  and  Siva)  or  male  principles,  had  a  sakti,  or  female 
consort  or  female  energy.  Vach  or  Sarasvati  was  the  wife  of 
Brahma,  and  was  regarded  as  the  goddess  of  speech  and  learning ; 
Sri  or  Lakshmi  was  the  wife  of  Vishnu  and  is  the  goddess  of 
beauty  and  fortune;  Uma,  or  Parvati,  is  the  wife  of  Siva,  but 
Parvati  is  also  called  Kali  (the  Black  One)  or  Durga  (the  Ter- 
rible One)  or  Maha-Devi  (the  Great  Goddess).  While  Siva  was 
the  god  of  destruction  and  reproduction,  in  more  modern  times 
he  is  more  generally  described  as  a  male  generative  god,  and  is 
symbolized  by  the  lingam  or  phallus;  and  his  sakti  or  consort, 
Kali,  is  now  more  generally  recognized  as  the  destructive  agency. 
This  is  simply  an  early  exemplification  of  Kipling's  line:  "The 
female  of  the  species  is  more  deadly  than  the  male." 

To  explain  the  frequency  of  the  figures  of  the  lingam  in  the 
temples  and  the  groves  of  the  forests,  the  Hindus  relate,  that 
once  upon  a  time  the  gods  were  called  together  to  consult  about 
some  important  matter,  but  when  all  had  arrived  Siva  was  still 
absent.  After  waiting  for  a  long  time,  they  finally  sent  a  mes- 
senger to  look  up  Siva  and  bring  him  to  the  conference.  This 
messenger  knocked  at  Siva's  door,  but  receiving  no  answer,  he 
walked  in  and  found  Siva  busy  with  Parvati,  in  sexual  activity; 
nor  would  Siva  quit,  but  kept  right  on,  and  told  the  messenger 
to  tell  the  gods  that  he  would  come  when  he  had  finished  with  the 
work  he  was  then  doing.  The  other  gods  ordered  that  in  com- 
memoration of  Siva's  activity,  the  whole  country  should  be  filled 
with  phalli,  and  that  the  lingam  should  be  the  symbol  for  Siva 
ever  thereafter. 

There  are  many  other  gods;  Indra,  the  god  of  the  sky,  was 
also  called  the  god  of  the  East;  Agni  (Fire  or  Fire-god)  was  also 
god  of  the  Southeast;  Surya,  the  Sun,  of  the  Southwest;  etc. 
The  wives  of  these  other  gods  were  called  Apsaras,  or  Lovely 
Nymphs. 

Rudra  is  the  "God  of  the  Roaring  Storm;"  he  represents 
Siva  in  his  capacity  as  destroyer,  and  is  sometimes  identified 
with  Siva.  Siva  is  also  symbolized  as  "Nandi"  the  Sacred  Bull, 
which  animal  is  sacred  to  Siva,  symbolizing  his  creative  or  sexual 
power. 

The  popular  belief  at  present  in  India  pays  little  worship 
to  Brahma;  it  is  mainly  a  worship  of  the  elementary  forces  of 
nature,  symbolized  as  supernatural  beings  with  the  sexual  pow- 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  459 

ers  of  men  and  women,  and  with  intellectual  powers  greater  than 
those  of  man. 

The  four  castes  in  India  sprang  from  the  mouth,  the  arms, 
the  thighs  and  the  feet  of  Purusha  who  is  the  Hindu  demiurge. 
The  Brahmans  are  the  highest  of  these  castes,  and  are  believed 
to  be  "twice-born,"  once  as  a  divinity  and  once  as  a  human  be- 
ing. A  Hindu  may  not  marry  a  woman  of  a  higher  caste  than  his 
own,  but  he  may  marry  a  girl  of  any  caste  or  of  each  caste  lower 
than  his  own,  provided  he  has  a  wife  of  his  own  caste.  Hindus 
are  polygamous,  but  may  not  marry  a  fourth  woman;  when  they 
have  married  three  wives,  they  next  marry  a  babul  tree,  then  a 
fifth,  a  woman,  and  so  on. 

Since  the  beginning  of  our  era,  the  worship  of  Brahma  has 
almost  ceased;  there  are  only  two  or  three  temples  in  his  honor, 
now  existent. 

Vishnu,  the  Preserver,  is  still  worshipped.  In  ancient  times 
he  was  the  god  of  the  shining  firmament,  but  Indra,  the  god  of 
the  sky  or  atmosphere  has  taken  his  place,  to  a  great  extent. 

In  his  function  as  Preserver  or  Redeemer,  Vishnu  has  ex- 
perienced a  number  of  "atavars"  or  incarnations.  The  first 
time  he  assumed  the  shape  of  a  fish,  and  warned  Manu  of  the 
coming  of  the  flood.  Next,  he  appeared  as  a  turtle,  and  carried 
the  world  on  his  back,  and  thus  saved  it  from  destruction  when 
the  other  gods  "churned  up  the  sea,"  or,  metaphorically,  "rocked 
the  boat."  The  eighth  time  he  was  incarnated  as  Krishna,  the 
ninth  time  as  Buddha.  He  will  reappear  once  more  in  a  tenth 
atavar,  after  which  will  come  the  destruction  of  the  world. 

In  his  eighth  atavar  Vishnu  appeared  as  Krishna;  his  mother 
was  Devaki;  Kama,  a  demon  king,  tried  to  kill  him,  but  his  fa- 
ther, a  warrior,  hid  him.  When  he  was  a  young  man  he  mar- 
ried two  wives,  but  he  also  spent  much  time  among  sixteen  thou- 
sand milkmaids;  his  favorite  among  these  was  his  mistress  Badha. 

The  Rajputs  are  an  aristocratic  clan  of  the  population  of 
Karanli,  a  native  state  of  India,  who  claim  to  be  descendants  of 
Krishna ;  they  should  be  a  very  numerous  clan,  if  they  also  claim 
as  ancestresses  his  milkmaid  companions. 

In  this  incarnation  Vishnu  had  one  thousand  names,  one  of 
which — Juggernaut — is  well  known;  the  name  means  "Lord  of 
the  world."  Some  of  his  other  names  mean  "Savior,"  "Re- 


460  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

deemer,"  etc.,  and  some  of  the  stories  told  about  him  are  similar 
to  stories  told  about  Jesus. 

Siva  and  his  wife  Parvati  are  the  most  important  deities  in 
India  at  the  present  time. 

Worship  or  adoration  among  the  lower  classes  in  India  con- 
sists in  frequently  repeating  the  names  of  the  deity ;  some  of  them 
train  parrots  to  do  this  for  them,  they  getting  all  the  credit  for 
the  repetitions  of  the  holy  name ;  the  names  of  Vishnu,  Krishna- 
Radha,  and  of  Sita-Ram  are  thus  adored. 

Among  the  Hindus  it  is  considered  a  great  disgrace  to  have  a 
daughter  unmarried;  to  obviate  this,  infanticide  of  females  is 
practiced,  because  Brahmanic  weddings  are  very  expensive;  for 
the  same  reason,  to  run  no  chance  of  their  remaining  unmarried 
the  girls  are  married  off  when  three  to  six  years  old;  in  those 
tropical  countries  girls  are  of  marriageable  age  when  ten  or 
twelve  years  old.  But  the  main  reason  for  these  early  marriages 
is  a  religious  requirement  that  coition,  or  the  consummation  of 
marriage,  should  take  place  immediately  after  the  first  appear- 
ance of  menstruation.  Puberty  occurs  in  that  tropical  country 
at  about  ten  to  twelve  years;  so  the  girls  are  married  young  so 
that  when  menstruation  occurs,  no  time  will  be  lost  in  comply- 
ing with  the  religious  demands.  But  some  husbands  do  not  wait, 
but  use  their  little  girl  wives,  often  lacerating,  crippling  and  para- 
lyzing them  and  ruining  them  for  life. 

China 

The  Chinese  "Book  of  Changes"  by  Wan  Wang  (1150  B.C.) 
teaches  that  all  material  things  in  this  world  were  produced  by 
two  great  male  and  female  vivifying  elements,  the  Yin  and  the 
Yang,  which  proceeded  from  the  Tai-Keih,  or  the  First  Great 
Cause.  The  Chinese  philosophers  say  that  when  from  the  union 
of  the  Yin  and  the  Yang  all  existing  things,  both  animate  and  in- 
animate, had  been  produced,  the  sexual  principle  was  conveyed 
to  and  became  inherent  in  all  of  them.  Thus  heaven,  the  sun,  the 
day,  etc.,  are  considered  to  be  male,  while  earth,  moon,  night,  etc., 
are  female. 

This  idea  of  sexuality  pervades  every  department  of  knowl- 
edge in  China,  and  is  constantly  referred  to  in  every  subject, 
anatomy,  medicine,  botany,  etc.  The  emperor,  whose  ancestor 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  461 

was  a  miraculously  born  son  of  heaven,  worships  as  high  priest 
the  two  divinities,  heaven  and  earth,  which  appear  to  correspond 
to  the  old  Greek  Uranus  and  Gaea  (Heaven  and  Earth). 

Japan 

The  Ume  (plum-tree)  is  usually  accompanied  with  its  insep- 
arable companions,  the  pine-tree  and  the  bamboo,  all  in  the  form 
of  dwarf-trees.  These  three  have  come  down  the  ages  from  time 
immemorial  as  symbols  of  all  that  is  desirable  in  life.  One  of 
the  first  things  taught  a  child  is  that  "Sho-chiten-bai"  (or  pine- 
bamboo-plum)  means  good  luck  and  happiness.  The  pine-tree 
is  the  symbol  for  masculine  strength,  endurance,  loyalty  and  lon- 
gevity. The  plum-tree  is  the  symbol  for  the  feminine,  and  stands 
for  sweetness  and  chastity,  the  fundamental  virtues  insuring  do- 
mestic joy.  The  bamboo,  because  it  bends  before  the  storm  with- 
out breaking,  has  the  significance  of  moral  uprightness  and  of 
grace ;  though  pliant  it  never  breaks. 

The  three  virtues,  endurance,  sweetness,  and  strength  in 
yielding,  make  a  trinity  of  virtues  that  to  the  Japanese  appear  to 
be  absolutely  satisfying. 

Mexico 

We  have  already  considered  how  religious  ideas  may  have 
come  from  Europe  or  Asia  to  America  in  prehistorical  times,  so 
will  need  to  say  nothing  farther  on  that  matter  here. 

In  Guatemala  the  creator  was  the  "Feathered  Serpent" 
whose  name  was  Gucumatz. 

The  Toltecs  worshipped  Quetzalcoatl,  who  was  a  great  deity, 
a  white  man  with  black  hair  and  a  long  beard ;  he  taught  them  to 
lead  a  virtuous  life,  to  hate  war,  to  sacrifice  no  men  or  beasts  on 
the  altars,  but  only  bread  and  flowers  and  perfumes. 

The  ancient  Mexicans  counted  time  by  cycles  of  fifty-two 
years.  At  the  beginning  of  a  new  cycle  a  new  sacred  fire  was 
kindled  on  the  naked  breast  of  a  human  sacrificial  victim.  They 
had  a  supreme  god,  "Teotle;"  also  a  rival  deity  of  evil;  these  are 
supposed  to  have  been  brought  from  Asia  (see  page  31). 

Tonatiuh  and  Motztli  were  nature  gods — sun  and  moon.  The 
war  god  Huitzilopochtli  was  said  to  have  been  supernaturally  con- 
ceived; according  to  one  account  he  was  a  deified  great  warrior; 


462  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

but  according  to  another  account  he  was  the  head  of  the  Mexican 
pantheon.  His  idol  was  a  huge  basalt  rock  on  one  side  of  which 
was  his  image,  while  on  the  other  side  was  his  wife,  the  goddess 
of  war  Tayaomiqui. 

Centeotle  was  the  goddess  of  the  all-nourishing  maize  or 
Indian  corn;  she  was  the  patroness  of  the  earth  and  the  "mother 
of  the  gods."  There  were  also  other  deities,  a  goddess  of  pleas- 
ure, a  god  of  pulque  (strong  drink),  etc.,  and  the  usual  subor- 
dinate nature-spirits  of  hill  and  vale,  woods,  rivers,  etc. 

THE  ETERNAL  FEMININE 
General  Considerations 

We  pass  on  to  the  consideration  of  what  Goethe  called  "Das 
Ewig  Weibliche"  (The  Eternal  Feminine),  the  attributes  of  con- 
ceiving and  producing,  and  of  nourishing. 

Fertility  was  always  highly  prized,  as  when  Moses  said: 
"The  Almighty  shall  bless  thee  with  blessings  *  *  *  of  the 
breasts  and  of  the  womb"  (Gen.  xlix,  25) ;  or  when  the  Psalmist 
sings:  "Thy  wife  shall  be  as  a  fruitful  vine  by  the  sides  of  thine 
house;  thy  children  like  olive  plants  round  about  the  table"  (Ps. 
cxxviii,  3). 

On  the  other  hand,  sterility  was  recognized  as  a  curse,  as 
when  Hosea  invokes  the  wrath  of  God  on  Israel  for  their  sins : — 
"Give  them,  0,  Lord!  a  miscarrying  womb  and  dry  breasts." 
(Hosea  ix,  14). 

The  relationship  of  the  woman  to  the  child  and  her  agency 
in  producing  a  new  being  obviously  must  have  been  recognized 
before  reasoning  connected  the  sexual  act  of  the  man  with  this 
process.  Her  power  to  produce  may  have  been  recognized  at  a 
quite  early  time  as  a  divine  power,  presided  over  by  a  deity  enti- 
tled to  homage  and  thanks. 

The  priority  of  the  recognition  of  the  relationship  of  mother- 
hood makes  it  probable  that  the  earliest  ethical  inspirations  of 
the  race  wrere  associated  with  the  name  of  "Ma" — Mother — even 
as  the  first  articulate  sounds  of  the  human  child — "ma,  ma," — 
are  believed  to  utter  her  sacred  name;  therefore  the  most  primi- 
tive conceptions  of  a  creative  power  or  deity  probably  took  the 
form  of  worship  of  the  feminine,  of  motherhood,  of  the  woman, 
the  "Madonna." 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP 


463 


When  a  preacher  once  described  to  his  hearers  the  creation 
of  Adam  and  Eve,  he  told  them  that  "God  created  Adam  in  his 
own  image."  " Glory  to  God!"  responded  some  of  the  audience. 
"And  then,"  continued  the  preacher,  "God  created  Eve,  also  in 
his  own  image,  but  with  a  difference" — and  "Thank  God  for  the 
Difference!"  came  the  response  from  the  congregation.  Thank 
God  for  the  Difference! 

The  two  things  which  would  attract  our  attention  first  in  a 
naked  woman  (Fig.  265),  are  the  peculiarly  feminine  charms  of 
the  beautifully  rounded  breasts,  and  the  mons,  Veneris  with  its 
covering  of  hair.  This  hirsute  adornment  of  the  pubes  of  the 


Fig.  265. — The  origin  of  the  sacred  femi-          Fig.  2GC. — The  origin  of  feminine  sym- 
nine  triangle.  bols;  the  circle  represents  the  breast,  the 

feminine  triangle  the  mons  veneris. 

woman  is  in  the  form  of  an  inverted  pyramid,  a  triangle  with  its 
apex  down,  the  reverse  of  the  sacred  male  triangle.  Compare 
with  this  figure  the  mons  veneris  of  some  unfortunate  girl  to 
whom  the  goddess  Ossipaga  has  been  unkind  (see  page  514), 
and  to  whom  she  has  given  an  insufficiently  developed  pelvis ;  such 
a  girl  has  a  contracted  pelvis,  a  pelvis  which  has  a  masculine  build, 
and  the  pubic  hairy  triangle  is  also  masculine  in  form. 

These  features  of  the  vigorous,  well-formed  woman  gave  rise 
to  the  sacred  symbols  of  the  feminine  Powers  in  Nature — the 
Circle,  and  the  "Sacred  Feminine  Triangle"  (Fig.  266). 


464  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

Besides  these  we  have  the  variations — the  circle  with  a  dot 
in  the  center,  the  breast  with  its  nipple;  the  " Assyrian  bell," 
really  the  breast  in  profile,  which,  at  the  end  of  a  staff  constitutes 
the  Egyptian  feminine  sceptre;  the  triangle  with  a  slit,  as  the 
pubes  would  appear  if  they  were  devoid  of  hair;  the  doubly- 
pointed  ellipse,  the  conventional  figure  for  the  vulva,  to  which  Job 
referred  nearlj7  3500  years  ago  as  ''the  door  of  my  mother's 
womb"  (Job  iii,  10)  and  which  in  religious  symbolism  is  known 
as  the  "door  of  life"  because  it  is  literally  the  door  through 
which  we  were  ushered  into  life;  and  lastly,  the  oval  and  the 
diamond  or  "lozenge,"  as  conventionalizations  of  the  doubly- 
pointed  ellipse. 

The  deity  who  presided  over  the  feminine  functions  was  wor- 
shipped as  a  goddess  in  various  religions,  for  instance,  as  the 
moon,  as  Ma,  Isis,  Cybele,  Ishtar,  Ashtoreth,  Astarte,  Diana, 
Freya,  Venus  Genetrix,  etc.,  and  Avas  then  represented  either  as 
a  realistic  beautiful  woman,  or  symbolically  as  just  explained, 
or  in  the  form  of  some  animal,  as  a  cow,  etc. 

While  in  most  religions  the  male  principle  was  acknowledged 
as  the  most  important  there  were  religions  in  which  the  female 
principle  was  the  principal  deity,  as  for  instance,  Tabiti,  the 
highest  deity  of  the  ancient  Scythians.  According  to  the  accen- 
tuation of  one  or  the  other  of  the  feminine  attributes,  the  creative 
or  the  nourishing  powers,  one  or  the  other  set  of  the  symbols  of 
the  circle  or  the  triangle  was  used. 

Vulva 

The  external  feminine  sexual  parts  (page  151),  the  vulva,  is 
called  "yoni"  in  India;  it  is  still  very  widely  worshipped  in  Asi- 
atic religions  and  the  worshippers  of  feminine  attributes  are 
called  * '  Yonicitas. "  In  subsequent  references  to  the  vulva  we 
will  speak  of  it  as  the  "yoni." 

Yoni  is  Sanskrit  and  means  vulva,  uterus  or  origin;  it  is  the 
female  power  in  nature.  The  Supreme  Being,  wishing  to  begin 
creation,  divided  himself  into  two  parts,  Brahma  and  Nature; 
from  Brahma  all  males  originated ;  from  Nature,  all  females ;  but 
the  female  is  regarded  as  the  real  force  in  nature  and  most  de- 
serving of  worship. 

We  will  first  speak  of  the  worship  of  the  producing  or  crea- 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP 


465 


tive  power,  and  the  symbols  derived  from  the  yoni.  This  draw- 
ing (Fig.  267)  shows  the  figure  of  an  idol  found  by  Schliemann 
in  the  ruins  of  the  ancient  City  of  Troy;  it  is  probably  over  4000 
years  old.  Note  the  triangle,  and  the  swastika  symbol  in  the 
triangle.  Compare  this  figure  with  the  one  of  Ishtar  (page  468) 
and  notice  that  the  pubic  curls  are  represented  in  a  similar  man- 
ner, which  was  probably  due  to  primitive  implements. 

A  similar  figure  was  found  among  the  carvings  of  the  trog- 
lodites,  the  ancient  primitive  cave  dwellers  in  Southern  Europe, 
to  which  an  age  of  about  30,000  years  is  attributed. 

As  man  values  the  sexual  parts  of  his  wife  as  his  most  sacred 


Fig.  267. — An  idol  found  in  the  ruins 
of  Troy,  by  Schliemann ;  note  the  swastika 
sign  in  the  triangle. 


Fig.  268. — An  Egyptian  goddess  holding 
a  feminine  sceptre  before  her. 


and  exclusive  possession,  the  feminine  triangle  of  the  mons  Ven- 
eris  became  a  most  sacred  symbol,  standing  for  everything  in  life 
that  is  holy,  pure,  chaste  and  true.  It  is  used  in  this  sense  in 
innumerable  figures  of  goddesses  in  Egyptian  temple  ruins,  as 
for  instance  in  the  figure  of  the  goddess  Netpe  (Fig.  260,  p.  447); 
this  also  shows  the  sacred  feminine  sceptre,  a  profile  breast  on 
a  staff,  shown  also  in  the  temple  sculpture  (Fig.  268). 

In  Gnostic  and  early  Christian  times  word-charms  were  much 


466  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

used.  One  of  the  most  popular  of  these  was  the  Abracadabra 
charm ;  the  word  was  said  to  be  from  Ab,  Ben,  Ruach,  ACADosch, 
Hebrew  for  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost.  When  engraved  on  a 
medal  it  constituted  a  powerful  charm  to  protect  against  disease 
and  misfortune.  The  word  was  generally  arranged  in  the  form 
of  the  feminine  triangle,  thus : 

ABRACADABRA     OB      ABRACADABRA 
ABRACADABR  BRACADABR 

ABRACADAB  RACADAB 

ABRACADA  ACADA 

ABRACAD  CAD 

ABRACA  A 

ABRAC 
ABRA 
ABR 
AB 
A 

The  derivation  of  the  triangle  with  a  slit  or  fissure  in  the 
lower  part  of  the  triangle  became  very  apparent  when  a  woman 
sat  with  outstretched  legs  on  an  altar  in  the  temples  of  yonic  wor- 
ship ;  or  in  Oriental  harems  where  etiquette  requires  that  the  pubes 
shall  be  kept  denuded  of  hair,  by  shaving,  pulling  out,  or  by  de- 
pilatories ;  or  in  girls  before  puberty. 

At  the  age  of  puberty  a  girl's  hips  widen,  the  breasts  enlarge, 
and  the  pubic  hair  appears ;  unlike  Orientals,  who  have  this  hair 
removed,  Occidental  people  allow  it  to  grow  and  consider  it  beau- 
tiful in  proportion  to  its  profuseness. 

In  an  Egyptian  mural  painting  the  mistress  of  the  household 
was  represented  as  clad  in  a  diaphanous  robe,  plainly  allowing 
the  hairy  pubic  triangle  to  be  seen;  from  the  remarks  on  per- 
fumery, you  will  remember  that  the  Egyptian  women  took  pains 
to  make  this  feature  specially  attractive  by  perfuming  it.  Among 
the  ancient  Egyptians  and  Jews,  a  heavy  growth  of  pubic  hair 
was  considered  a  great  physical  charm,  and  Ezekiel  compared 
Jerusalem  to  a  young  bride  in  these  words :  ' '  Thou  art  come  to 
excellent  ornaments;  thine  breasts  are  fashioned  and  thine  hair 
is  grown  whereas  thou  wast  naked  and  bare"  (Ezek.  xvi,  7). 
Among  us,  men  are  fond  of  admiring  this  feature  of  women,  fond 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  407 

of  toying  with  the  little  curls,  and  they  playfully  call  it  ''pussy." 
Women  are  usually  more  or  less  apathetic  to  sexual  caresses 
and  often  it  becomes  necessary  to  produce  in  them  a  proper  de- 
gree of  excitement  by  manual  or  labial  caresses,  to  dispose  them 
favorably  for  sexual  enjoyments ;  probably  the  caress  most  gener- 
ally resorted  to  by  the  male  is  the  manual  caressing  of  the  breasts 
or  of  the  yoni  with  its  little  curls  of  hair.  In  Oriental  lands,  as 
well  as  in  the  Bible,  the  yoni  was  called  "the  door  to  the  womb;" 
the  cajess  just  referred  to  was  resorted  to  by  the  lover  in  Solo- 
mon's Song  (Cant,  v,  4)  where  the  bride  says:  "My  beloved  put 
in  his  hand  by  the  hole  of  the  door,  and  my  bowels  were  moved  for 


Fig.  269. — Fertility  sign  in  a  field  in  Mexico;  Zuni  and  Aztec. 

him."    When  he  caressed  her  yoni,  she  became  erotically  excited. 

The  naked  mons  of  a  young  girl  is  exquisitely  beautiful,  as 
is  shown  in  this  plaster-cast  of  a  virgin  mons  (Fig.  270).  Notice 
the  lines  of  the  angles  between  the  mons  and  the  thighs,  between 
the  two  thighs,  and  the  slit  between  the  labia  or  lips.  This  gave 
rise  to  the  "sign  of  fertility"  which  signified  not  only  potential 
powers  of  fertility,  but  also  was  a  symbol  of  virginity. 

Here  is  a  photograph  (Fig.  269)  of  the  symbol  of  fertility 
erected  in  a  field  of  Mexico  to  invoke  the  blessings  of  fertility  or 
fruitfulness  for  the  seeds  that  were  sown  in  this  field. 

In  precisely  the  same  manner  and  for  the  same  purpose  this 


468 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


sign  is  used  b}^  the  Hindus  in  India,  as  shown  in  cut  A,  and  by  the 
Zunis  in  New  Mexico,  as  shown  in  cut  B. 


Y 


A. 


B. 


Our  artists  represent  neither  the  pubic  hair  nor  the  slit  in 
their  paintings  or  statues.  The  ancients,  on  the  other  hand,  glo- 
ried in  perfect  womanhood  and  deified  and  adored  the  attributes 
thereef.  This  is  a  figure  of  Ishtar,  the  daughter  of  Bel  or  Baal, 
the  goddess  of  fertility  of  the  ancient  Phoenicians.  The  conven- 


Fig.  270. — A  plaster  cast  of  a  virgin  Fig.  271. — The  Phoenician  Goddess 
mons  veneris;  the  origin  of  the  sign  of  Ishtar;  after  a  small  ivory  figure  in  the 
fertility.  British  Museum. 

tional  method  of  indicating  curls  is  quite  peculiar,  but  frequent. 
The  original  of  the  figure  shown  is  a  small  ivory  statuette  now 
in  the  British  Museum  (Fig.  271). 

Among  the  Greeks  and  Romans  Aphrodite  or  Venus,  being 
the  goddess  of  physical  and  promiscuous  love,  was  represented 
naked,  and  her  posture  called  attention  to  her  womanly  charms — 
the  breasts  and  the  pudendum  or  sexual  parts  (Fig.  144,  p.  292). 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  469 

In  her  temples  men  and  women  worshipped  by  indulging  in 
coition  in  her  honor.  The  genitive  of  her  name  is  Veneris,  and 
by  changing  the  last  syllable  to  the  infinitive  ending,  the  verb 
"venerare"  was  obtained,  and  from  this  in  turn  the  word  ven- 
eratio,  or  veneration,  which  originally  meant  the  form  of  worship 
just  mentioned,  but  which  with  us  now  means  merely  an  act  of 
veneration  or  worship. 

While  on  the  one  hand  the  worship  of  the  Feminine  led  to 
extravagant  forms  of  adoration  or  veneration,  it  also  led  to  the 
opposite  extreme,  fiendish  excesses  and  cruelties.  For  instance, 
there  are  frequent  references  in  the  Old  Testament  to  the  follow- 
ing practice :  Moses  commanded  the  Israelites  to  destroy  all  males 
of  their  enemies  utterly,  and  that  not  even  the  unborn  males  might 
escape,  he  said,  "Now  therefore  kill  *  *  *  every  woman  that 
hath  known  man  by  lying  with  him"  (Num.  xxxi,  17) ;  and  we  are 
told  in  the  Second  Book  of  Kings,  of  Menahem,  the  son  of  Gadi, 
ruler  over  Israel,  that  "Menahem  smote  Tiphsah,  *  *  *  and 
all  the  women  therein  that  were  with  child  he  ripped  up"  their 
bellies  (II  Kings  xv,  16). 

Hosea,  the  prophet,  pronounced  this  curse  on  Samaria:  "Sa- 
maria shall  become  desolate ;  their  infants  shall  be  dashed  to  pieces 
and  their  women  with  child  shall  be  ripped  up"  (Hosea  viii,  16). 

This  seems  to  have  been  a  peculiar  feature  of  warfare  among 
people  of  Asia  Minor ;  a  few  years  ago,  when  the  Turks  massacred 
the  Armenians  long  before  the  present  war,  when  they  captured 
a  pregnant  woman  they  made  bets  as  to  the  sex  of  the  foetus  in 
her  womb,  after  which  they  cut  open  her  belly  to  decide  the  bets. 

The  Sistrum  (Fig.  272)  is  sometimes  spoken  of  as  a  musical 
instrument,  because  it  was  used  as  a  sort  of  rattle  to  accompany 
religious  dances  and  ceremonies  in  the  ancient  temples  of  Egypt. 
It  is  really  a  symbol  of  the  yoni  locked  or  barred,  and  there- 
fore of  virginity,  and  in  this  sense  is  here  shown  as  carried  by 
the  goddess  Isis,  who  was  worshipped  as  a  virgin  mother  of 
Horus,  just  as  Mary  is  worshipped  as  a  virgin  mother  of  Jesus. 

The  origin  of  this  symbol  must  perhaps  be  sought  in  a  cus- 
tom which  still  survives  in  the  Soudan,  and  which  has  no  doubt 
been  brought  down  from  remote  antiquity.  In  Africa  women  are 
property  or  chattel,  and  are  bought  and  sold.  Virginity  is  highly 
prized,  there  as  elsewhere,  and  in  some  parts  of  Africa  the  father 
rivets  an  iron  ring  through  the  labia  of  his  child-daughter  (Fig. 


470 


SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


273)  which  remains  until  she  is  sold  to  a  husband,  when  the  latter 
removes  the  ring  with  a  file  and  replaces  it  with  a  padlock  or  har- 
ness of  which  he  alone  has  a  key. 

A  similar  procedure  was  in  vogue  among  our  own  ancestry 
until  comparatively  recent  times;  in  fact,  some  writers  say  that 
it  is  still  in  use  in  some  of  the  primitive  communities  in  Europe. 

The  medieval  "chastity  belts"  figured  on  page  84  were  com- 
mon, and  many  are  still  shown  in  European  museums.  Such 
things  were  possible  only  in  an  age  when  the  patient  Griseldis 
was  a  possibility;  when  wives  were  taught  to  think,  as  expressed 
by  Eve  to  Adam,  in  Paradise  Lost: 


Fig.  272.  —  Isis,  holding  the  sistrum  or       Fig.  273.  —  Origin  and  meaning  of  the  sistrum. 
symbol  of  virginity. 


bidst 

Unargued  I  obey;  so  God  ordains; 
God  is  thy  law,  thou  mine  ;  to  know  no  more 
Is  woman's  happiest  knowledge  and  her  praise." 

This  is  the  Christian  or  New  Testament  doctrine.  We  read 
in  the  letter  of  St.  Paul  to  the  Colossians,  ii,  22:  "Wives,  submit 
yourselves  unto  your  husbands  as  unto  the  Lord  *  *  *  there- 
fore, as  the  church  is  subject  unto  Christ,  so  let  the  wives  be  to 
their  husbands  in  everything." 

I  will  not  devote  much  space  here  to  the  symbolic  representa- 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


471 


tions  of  the  yoni  and  the  womb.  As  ancient  religions  were 
mainly  sexual  explanations  of  natural  phenomena,  many  natural 
objects  were  explained  with  these  religious  ideas;  for  instance: 
Among  the  Greeks  and  Eomans  Oceanus  was  the  father,  Gaea  or 
Terra  (Earth),  the  mother,  and  the  rivers  were  the  children. 
Caves,  grottoes,  etc.,  became  symbols  of  the  womb;  arches,  the 
entrances  to  caves  or  to  tombs,  became  symbols  of  the  "door  to 
the  \vomb,"  the  yoni.  In  some  Asiatic  temples  the  lower  part,  or 
auditorium,  was  oval  and  symbolized  the  feminine,  while  the  stee- 
ple symbolized  the  masculine.  So  also,  arks  of  various  kinds  were 


Fig.    274. — Rock-carved    entrances    to 
tombs,  in  Palestine. 


Fig.  275. — Stonehenge  consists  of  a  circle 
(fern.)  of  arches  (fem.)  surrounding  some  sin- 
gle (masc.)  monoliths. 


supposed  to  represent  the  feminine — the  ark  of  the  covenant,  for 
instance. 

Many  grottoes  were  sacred  in  ancient,  as  well  as  in  modern 
times,  not  only  in  Pagan  lands  but  in  Christian  lands  as  well. 
For  instance,  Ummernath  cave,  in  India,  is  a  shrine  of  pilgrim- 
age, where  a  "sacred  bull"  is  worshipped.  While  this  is  a  very 
sacred  shrine,  the  bull  is  very  small,  being  only  knee-high  to  the 
man;  it  represents  a  zebu  bull,  no  doubt  (see  Fig.  253). 

In  modern  times  the  association  of  the  virgin  with  the  grotto 
is  well  known — Lourdes,  for  example. 


472 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


Church  windows,  niches,  etc.,  are  often  made  in  shapes  to 
suggest  the  yoni,  and  frequently  serve  as  recesses  for  the  hous- 
ing of  religious  statuary. 

In  some  religions  the  devotees  passed  through  arches  or  yoni- 
shaped  holes  in  stone  slabs,  as  a  symbol  of  "being  born  again," 
or  of  being  purified  and  cleansed  of  their  sins. 

The  shell  as  a  symbol  of  the  yoni  is  common;  Venus  is  often 
represented  with  the  shell  (Fig.  276).  This  has  been  explained  to 
refer  to  her  birth  from  sea-foam,  associating  the  shell  with  the 
sea ;  but  there  are  so  many  illustrations  of  shells  in  art,  in  which 


Fig.  276.— "Venus  in  a  Shell,"  by  Finelli. 

this  explanation  will  not  fit,  that  we  must  seek  another  and  more 
plausible  interpretation. 

As  Venus  is  the  goddess  of  physical  love,  the  meaning  of  the 
shell  in  connection  with  Venus  is  not  difficult  to  understand;  it 
is  a  symbol  of  the  yoni. 

I  showed  the  triangle  in  two  guardians  of  an  Egyptian  tomb, 
indicating  by  its  position  the  meaning  of  this  triangle  as  a  lingam 
(p.  394).  In  a  similar  manner  the  shells,  as  held  by  the  nymphs 
in  this  votive  tablet  from  a  temple  of  Aesculapius,  show  their 
meaning  as  symbols  of  the  yoni  by  the  position  in  which  they  are 
held  (Fig.  277). 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


473 


When  the  Barrison  sisters  came  to  this  country,  they  were 
advertised  as  the  wickedest  girls  in  the  world;  they  were  dancers 
and  singers.  They  are  here  (Fig.  278)  represented  in  their  cele- 


Fig.  277. — A  votive  tablet  in  a  Roman  temple  of  Aesculapius;  nymphs  holding  shells  aa 

symbols  of  the  yoni. 


Fig.  278. — The  Barrison  Sisters,  in  their  song  and  dance:  "Do  you  see  my  little  pussy f " 

brated  song  and  dance,  entitled:  "Do  you  see  my  little  pussy?" 
The  manner  in  which  they  hold  the  little  kittens  shows  to  what 
" pussies"  they  had  reference;  this  renders  clear  the  meaning  of 
the  shells  in  the  votive  tablet  referred  to. 


474 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


When  the  Komans  went  to  a  temple  they  dipped  their  hand 
or  fingers  in  a  font  of  "holy  water,"  before  they  adored  the 
gods  or  goddesses ;  this  was  done  by  kissing  the  hand  and  waving 
it  toward  the  gods  (throwing  a  kiss)  or  by  kissing  the  image, 
or  the  feet  of  the  image  of  the  deity;  this  method  of  adoration  is 
still  in  vogue  in  the  Catholic  church,  both  as  to  the  use  of  holy 
water  and  as  to  the  form  of  adoration  by  kissing  holy  objects  or 
images.  The  font  in  which  the  holy  water  is  contained  is  often  in 
the  shape  of  a  shell,  or  a  shell  is  held  by  an  angel. 

Figure  279  represents  Maya-Deva,  a  Hindu  goddess,  in  two 
different  poses,  or  rather  in  two  variations  of  the  same  pose,  that 


Fig.  279. — The    goddess    Maya-Deva,    showing 
her  yoni;  India. 


Fig.  280. — Lower,  Horus  worship- 
ping his  mother,  Isis,  symbolized  by 
a  yoni;  upper,  a  door  of  life,  from 
a  dagopa  in  India. 


of  calling  attention  to  the  sacred  symbol  of  the  yoni ;  in  one  pose, 
the  yoni  is  rather  realistically  shown  as  a  doubly-pointed  ellipse, 
in  the  other  more  figuratively  or  symbolically,  as  a  diamond 
shaped  lozenge. 

In  the  illustration  shown  in  Fig.  280,  the  upper  figure  is  a 
"door  of  life"  from  an  ancient  Dagopa  of  Junnar  Cave,  Bombay 
Presidency,  India.  The  lower  figure  represents  Horus  worship- 
ping his  mother  Isis,  who  is  symbolized  by  the  yoni,  often  euphe- 
mistically referred  to  as  the  "lozenge;"  both  figures  are  symbols 
of  the  "door  of  life"  or  yoni. 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


475 


In  modern  ecclesiastical  symbolism  this  figure  is  explained  as 
the  "vesica  piscis;"  this  is  especially  the  case  when  it  is  an  oval 
or  elliptic  aureola  enveloping  the  whole  figure  of  Christ,  or  of 
Mary,  or  of  a  saint;  it  is  explained  to  mean  a  fish,  or  a  fish- 
bladder.  The  Greek  word  for  fish,  ix0i'?,  contained  in  consecutive 
order  the  initials  of  the  Greek  words  for  "  Jesus  Christ,  Son  of 
God,  the  Savior."  Hence  it,  and  the  fish,  became  sacred  in  Chris- 
tian art.  In  the  Brahnmnic  religion  it  is  taught  that  Vishnu,  in 
one  atavar,  or  incarnation,  assumed  the  form  of  a  fish  to  act  as  the 
savior  of  the  world. 


Fig.  281. — Elliptic  shape  of  woman. 


Fig.  282. — Immaculate  Conception  ;  from 
the  Rosary  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  1524. 


The  doubly-pointed  ellipse  is  the  best-known  symbol  or  rep- 
resentation of  the  yoni;  it  adorns  or  disfigures  nearly  all  public 
" comfort"  places,  urinals,  etc.,  and  is  probably  one  of  the  first 
figures  a  boy  learns  to  draw  or  to  understand.  But  it  does  not 
necessarily  always  mean  the  yoni;  it  is  sometimes  used  merely  as 
a  symbol  for  a  woman,  because  the  body  of  a  well-formed  woman 
with  its  full  hips  and  pelvic  development  has  this  elliptic  shape. 

Among  the  ancient  Romans  a  woman  of  easy  virtue,  a  haetera 
or  a  public  prostitute,  was  simply  called  a  "cunnus,"  which 


476 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


Fig.  283.— Meeting  of  Mary  and  Eliza-      Fig.  284.— "The   Resurrection,"   from   a 
beth.       Altar-piece     in     Cologne     (about          painting  by  Raphael   and  Perugino. 
1400  A.D.). 


Fig.  285. — Mary  in  a  door  of  life,  Fig.  286. — A  few  impressions  of  medieval 
from  an  altar-piece  by  Niccolo  Alunno,  seals,  in  the  shape  of  the  circle  (breast),  the 
A.D.  1500.  female  triangle  (pubes)  and  the  oval  or  ellipse 

(yoni). 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP  477 

meant  exactly  the  same  thing  as  when  among  our  lower  classes 
she  is  called  a  "cunt,"  while  a  decent  woman  is  called  a  "skirt." 

So  in  ancient  religions,  the  most  characteristic  feature  of 
the  woman,  the  yoni,  was  used  to  symbolize  the  whole  woman, 
but  not  as  a  lewd  woman,  but  as  a  moral  woman  or  even  as  a  god- 
dess, as  in  the  representation  above,  of  Harpokrat  or  Horus  wor- 
shipping his  mother  Isis. 

Occasionally  this  figure  signifies  the  womb,  as  in  this  illus- 
tration of  the  "Immaculate  Conception"  from  a  book  entitled 
"Rosary  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,"  which  was  published  in  Venice 
in  1524,  and  which  was  approved  and  licensed  by  the  Holy 
Inquisition  (Fig.  282). 

This  is  a  medieval  altar-piece,  painted  about  A.D.  1400,  and 
now  in  Cologne.  It  represents  the  meeting  of  Mary  and  Eliza- 
beth, to  each  of  whom  the  angel  had  announced  that  she  would 
conceive  and  bear  a  son.  Here  again  the  doubly-pointed  ellipse 
symbolizes  the  womb,  rather  than  the  vulva.  Note  the  figure  of 
St.  John  in  the  womb  of  his  mother  Elizabeth,  kneeling  in  adora- 
tion before  Jesus  in  the  womb  of  Mary  (Fig.  283). 

Jesus  said  "I  am  the  door,"  and  "I  am  the  resurrection  and 
the  life."  In  Fig.  284  "The  Resurrection,"  by  Raphael  and  Peru- 
gino,  Jesus  is  represented  as  the  door  to  Eternal  Life,  but  the 
figure  is  that  of  the  East  Indian  door  of  life — the  yoni. 

This  shows  a  demon  of  disease  attempting  to  destroy  a  babe : 
the  mother  prays  for  help  and  Mary  appears  in  a  door  of  life  and 
frustrates  the  designs  of  the  demon.  The  painting  is  by  Niccolo 
Alunrio,  about  1500  A.D.  (Fig.  285). 

Saints,  Madonnas,  etc.,  are  often  shown  in  the  door  of  life; 
the  seals  of  many  abbeys,  cathedrals,  etc.,  and  the  sacred  or 
blessed  medals  from  many  shrines  are  in  the  same  form;  I  have 
a  large  collection  of  impressions  of  such  seals  and  the  doubly- 
pointed  ellipse  and  its  modification,  the  oval,  are  common  among 
them.  Sacred  medallions  and  amulets  are  often  in  this  shape. 
The  oval  is  the  groundplan  of  the  old  Mormon  tabernacle  in  Salt 
Lake  City.  In  the  ancient  land  of  Sheba  (recall  the  Queen  of 
Sheba)  the  groundplan  of  temples  was  oval;  Ishtar  was  one  of 
the  goddesses  in  whose  honor  this  shape  was  adopted  (Fig.  286). 

In  Yemen  (in  South  Arabia)  the  temples  were  built  with 
elliptic  groundplan,  in  honor,  probably,  also  of  Ishtar.  But  then, 


478 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


the  oval  and  the  ellipse  were  merely  modifications  of  the  same 
figure,  representing  the  same  idea.  While  many  temples  existed 
in  Yemen  (Saba,  in  ancient  times)  but  little  is  known  about  the 
religion  taught  in  them;  Athtar  was  their  sun-god  and  Sin  their 
moon-god;  the  mother  of  Athtar  seems  to  have  been  the  sun  itself. 

Buskin  figured  this  window  of  Dumblane  Abbey  (Fig.  288) 
which  he  declares  is  the  most  beautiful  window  in  all  England. 
Comparison  with  the  drawing  of  a  vulva  (Fig.  42,  p.  151),  shows 
what  this  window  really  represents — a  yoni  complete  in  all  its 

il 


Fig.    287.—  Seal   of   Lichfield    Cathedral, 
England. 


Fig.  288.—  Window  of  Dumblane  Abbey, 
England.      (Compare  with  Fig.  42.) 


parts  —  labia  majora,  labia  minora,  clitoris,  vestibule  and  orifice. 
In  some  medieval  churches  a  realistic  yoni  was  sculptured  on  the 
keystone  of  the  arch  of  the  main  door. 

At  one  time,  when  a  female  camel  or  a  mare  died,  the  yoni 
was  cut  off  and  nailed  to  the  stable  doors  to  ward  off  evil,  or  what 
is  the  same  —  "for  good  luck."  Later  on  the  horse-shoe  was  sub- 
stituted as  being  less  coarse,  or  more  euphemistic. 

From  similar  motives  symbols  of  the  yoni  were  attached  to 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP  47!) 

houses  or  built  in  in  churches,  etc.,  as  we  saw  in  the  window  of 
Dumblane  Abbey.  We  now  use  the  Hindu  diamond-shaped  sym- 
bol of  the  yoni,  the  lozenge,  which  is  shown  as  held  before  her  by 
Maya-Deva,  in  Fig.  279,  on  our  slate  roofs,  the  inner  slate  rod,  to 
represent  more  realistically  the  mucous  membrane  within  the  lips 
of  the  yoni.  Based  on  a  partial  count  I  estimate  that  this  sacred 
emblem  of  the  yoni  occurs  more  than  100,000  times  in  the  city  of 
St.  Louis  alone. 

We  will  now  consider  a  peculiar  form  of  the  adoration  of  the 
Feminine,  which  is  based  on  a  widespread,  if  not  universal  habit, 
the  caressing  by  passionate  men  of  the  bodies  of  their  sexual 
mates  with  lips  and  tongue.  Such  labial  caressings  are  common 
enough  in  animals,  as  for  instance  among  cattle,  where  the  cow 
licks  the  body  of  her  calf;  among  the  Esquimaux,  where  the  in- 
tense cold  makes  bathing,  or  even  washing,  impossible,  the  mother 
washes  her  child  as  the  cat  does  her  kitten,  by  licking  it  with  her 
tongue. 

Figure  289  shows  one  of  the  griffins  so  common  on  medieval 
buildings  in  Southern  Europe;  the  large  figure  is  from  the  roof 
of  the  church  of  Notre  Dame  in  Paris,  and  a  modification  of  it 
can  be  seen  on  the  DeSales  church  tower  in  St.  Louis. 

The  lower  figure  is  copied  from  Kuskin  who  says  that  it  is 
an  ornamentation  on  the  church  of  St.  Mary  the  Beautiful,  in 
Venice;  it  is  also  used  hundreds  of  times  in  the  same  city  as  well 
as  elsewhere. 

Kisses  on  all  parts  of  the  body  of  a  woman  are  recognized  as 
normal  in  sexual  caressings  by  most  writers  on  the  subject.  In 
one  of  the  letters  submitted  as  evidence  in  the  celebrated  Cail- 
laux  trial  in  Paris  (1914),  Caillaux  wrote  to  Mrs.  Caillaux:  "With 
a  thousand  million  kisses  on  all  parts  of  your  adorable  body,  I  am 
yours,  etc." 

In  India  the  lingam  and  yoni,  and  various  combinations  of 
the  two,  are  worshipped  by  many  millions  of  devotees,  as  repre- 
senting Siva  and  his  Sakti  Kali.  The  principal  ceremony  in  their 
worship  of  the  feminine  principle  requires  a  young,  beautiful 
and  naked  Nautch  girl  or  temple  attendant,  as  the  living  repre- 
sentative of  Kali,  the  yoni  goddess.  To  the  living  yoni  of  this 
girl  the  priest  addresses  his  homage;  she  is  seated  on  the  altar 
with  legs  spread  wide  apart  to  display  the  sacred  symbol,  which 
the  priest  kisses  and  to  which  he  offers  food  and  libations  in  sa- 


480 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


cred  vessels  called  "argha"  which  are  shaped  like  a  yoni.  After 
these  offerings  have  been  consecrated  by  touching  them  to  the 
living  yoni,  they  are  distributed  among  the  worshippers  and  par- 
taken of  as  a  sacred  religious  rite,  analogous  to  the  cak.es  eaten 
in  honor  of  Huitzilopochtli,  in  Mexico,  or  the  consecrated  phallic 
cakes  in  medieval  Europe,  or  to  the  Lord's  Supper  in  Christian 
ritual ;  this  is  followed  by  the  chanting  of  sacred  texts  and  dances 
by  Nautch  girls,  the  dances  resembling  the  danse  du  venire  or 
1  'belly  dance"  of  Egypt. 

This  worship  is  indicated  in  this  representation  (Fig.  290)  of 


Fig.  289. — Large  figure  from  roof  of 
Notre  Dame,  Paris;  small  one,  from 
Church  of  St.  Mary  the  Beautiful,  Venice. 


Fig.  290. — Maha-Kali,   wife    of    the    god 
Siva,  India. 


Maha-Kali,  consort  of  the  god  Siva,  the  Destroyer,  by  her  putting 
out  her  tongue. 

Near  Yeddo,  in  Japan,  is  a  grotto  (symbol  of  the  womb)  in 
which  there  is  a  colossal  but  realistic  sculpture  of  a  yoni  to  which 
pilgrim  devotees  pay  adoration  now  as  they  have  done  for  ages 
past ;  this  sculpture  has  been  worn  smooth  and  polished  from  the 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


481 


myriads  of  kisses  and  caresses  with  the  tongue  that  have  been 
bestowed  upon  it  by  the  devout  worshippers. 

Figure  294  shows  a  curious  pillar  found  in  an  Egyptian  tem- 
ple, and  figured  by  Rawlinson.  The  opened  lotus  flower  is  a  sym- 
bol of  the  lingam  while  the  two  lotus  buds  are  the  testicles;  the 
heads  over  these  masculine  symbols  do  not  protrude  their  tongues; 
on  the  front  (and  presumably  on  the  reverse)  is  a  head  with  pro- 
truding tongue  and  below  it  is  a  yonic  oval  to  show  the  object  to 
which  the  adoration  is  directed. 

In  some  Asiatic  nations,  a  guest  kisses  the  yoni  of  the  hostess, 


OOOO 


y 


Fig.  291. — Aztec  head,  from  Mexican 
Antiquities,  by   Kingsborough. 


Fig.  292.— The  Egyptian  god  Phtha,  the 
Opener,  adoring  virginity,  symbolized  by  the 
sistrum. 


or  touches  his  food  to  it,  as  a  sign  of  gratitude  for  hospitality 
shown. 

In  this  sculpture  from  an  Egyptian  temple  we  see  Phtha 
adoring  the  sistrum,  or  barred  yoni,  the  symbol  of  virginity  or 
chastity  to  which  Phtha,  the  Opener,  pays  his  devotions,  by  mas- 
turbating and  by  protruding  his  tongue  (Fig.  292). 

In  Syria  there  is  a  peculiar  sect — the  Nezaires.  Their  religion 
is  a  queer  mixture  of  depraved  Christianity,  intermingled  with  the 
sex-worship  of  other  Asiatic  people.  They  worship  God,  but  be- 
lieve Christ  to  have  been  merely  a  prophet  like  Mohammed;  they 
pray  to  the  prophets  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  apostles  of  the  New 
Testament,  and  to  the  Virgin  Mary;  they  practice  polygamy. 


482 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


They  celebrate  several  festivals,  the  most  solemn  of  which 
is  the  "festival  of  the  womb."  On  this  festival  day  they  gather 
in  their  places  of  worship  to  perform  the  most  sacred  and  solemn 


Fig.  293. — A    totem   pole   in   Alaska,    from    a  Fig.  294. — A  curious  pillar  in 

model  at  Chicago  World's  Fair,  1893.  an    Egyptian    temple.      After 

Bawlinson. 


OGGO  o  o  o  o  oo  o 


Fig.  295. — Aztec  serpent  worship,  from  Kingsborough's  Mexican  Antiquities. 

ceremonies  of  their  religion;  the  women  bare  themselves  and  the 
men  salute  the  women  with  a  holy  respect,  reverently  kneeling 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


483 


before  them,  embracing  their  thighs,  and  humbly  and  devoutly 
kissing  their  abdomens  and  genitals,  which  is  done  promiscuously, 
from  which  feature  of  their  devotions  comes  their  title:  "The 
Adorers  or  Worshippers  of  the  Womb." 

Here  is  the  figure  of  a  totem  pole  from  Alaskan  countries 
(Fig.  293) ;  note  the  legs  spread  wide  apart — a  woman's  legs,  for 
they  are  labeled  by  the  symbols  of  the  yoni  and  the  profile  breast 
on  each  foot;  the  Alaskan  artist  did  not  know  how  to  represent 
the  act  of  adoration  with  lips  and  tongue  except  by  turning  the 
face  the  wrong  way,  but  the  tongue  is  where  the  yoni  would  be,  if 
the  legs  alone  had  been  figured;  or  where  the  tongue  would  touch 
the  yoni  if  the  head  were  turned  around.  A  model  of  this  totem 


Fig.  296. — Aztec  calendar  stone. 

pole  was  at  the  World's  Fair  in  Chicago  and  is  now  in  the  Field 
Museum. 

This  adoration  seems  to  have  been  universally  known,  for  it 
is  found  on  both  continents  and  on  the  islands  of  the  Pacific  ocean, 
"from  Greenland's  icy  mountains,  to  India's  coral  strand."  This 
(Fig.  291)  is  the  same  gesture  from  an  Aztec  temple  in  Yucatan, 
Central  America;  and  in  the  opposite  illustration  (Fig.  295)  from 
an  Aztec  temple,  showing  serpent  worship,  the  women  show  the 
same  facial  gesture. 

That  these  mean  the  same  worship  of  woman,  or  of  the  Fem- 
inine, is  shown  in  this  sculpture  of  the  "Aztec  Sun,"  or  calendar 
stone,  from  a  monument  at  Xochicalco,  Mexico  (Fig.  296) ;  the 
sculpture  is  in  the  form  of  a  cross.  One  author  says  of  this  figure : 


484 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


"In  all  Mexican  monuments  it  is  indicated  with  protruding  tongue, 
expressing  the  light  and  heat  poured  upon  the  earth." 

We  might  possibly  accept  such  an  interpretation,  for  want  of 
a  better  one,  if  it  were  not  that  below  and  in  front  of  the  tongue 
we  see  the  yoni,  which  shows  that  here  we  have  the  same  idea  as 
in  the  sculptures  of  the  Eastern  Continent,  the  humble  adoration 
by  man  of  the  creative  and  generative  powers  and  functions  of 
woman,  symbolized  here  by  the  sun-god  adoring  Eternal  Fem- 
inine Nature,  the  yoni. 

In  Oceanica  the  same  worship  prevailed;  this  (Fig.  297)  is 
an  elaborately  carved  window  frame  from  New  Zealand,  which 
was  published  in  an  Auckland  magazine  or  paper.  Unfortunately 


Fig.  297. — Maori  window,  Sandwich  Islands. 

the  editor  of  the  paper  thought  that  the  important  feature  in  the 
illustration  was  the  Maori  girl,  and  he  cut  down  the  top  of  the 
frame;  but  enough  is  left  to  show  that  the  same  adoration  was 
meant  in  the  carved  frame. 

I  came  across  a  design  of  wall  paper  of  which  Fig.  299  is  a 
photograph ;  it  was  an  expensive  and  handsome  paper  in  gold  pat- 
tern on  a  maroon  ground.  Notice  the  satyr-heads.  Unfortu- 
nately the  colors  did  not  allow  of  getting  a  good  photograph ;  but 
by  painting  the  pattern  in  white  a  better  result  was  obtained 
(Fig.  298).  There  is  the  fleur-de-lis  symbol  of  the  lingam;  the 
satyr  head  protrudes  his  tongue,  ready  to  caress  the  vulvas,  for 
one  of  which  each  paw  is  reaching  out. 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


485 


It  follows  from  these  considerations  that  the  head  mentioned 
by  Raskin  as  occurring  on  the  church  of  St.  Mary  the  Beautiful, 
in  Venice,  really  means  abject  self-abasement  in  adoration  of 
womanhood  or  of  virginity. 


Fig.  298. — One  motif  of  wall    paper,  painted  white  to  give  better  contrast. 


Fig.  299. — A  modern  wall  paper  design. 


The  practice  is  not  obsolete  amongst  us,  although  it  is  now 
considered  merely  as  a  loving  caress  and  not  as  a  religious  rite. 
While  labial  sexual  caresses  are  considered  vices  by  some,  oth- 


486 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


ers  believe  hetero-sexual  labial  and  lingual  endearments  quite 
proper.  Sivartha,  in  a  curious  book  entitled  The  Book  of  Life, 
says: 

"The  human  form  exhausts  the  possibilities  of  form-beauty 
in  our  solar  system  (Fig.  300).  The  more  beautiful  curves,  the 
ellipse  and  parabola,  are  repeated  many  times.  The  bosom  of 
woman — the  ivory  throne  of  Love — derives  its  exquisite  beauty 
of  form  from  both  the  ellipse  and  the  parabola. 

"Viewed  as  a  whole  the  front  of  the  face  and  of  the  body  is 
attractive,  and  the  back  is  repulsive.  The  organs  of  sense,  the 


Fig.  300.— From  the  "Book  of  Life,"  by     Fig.  301.— From  the  "Book  of  Life,"  by 
Sivartha.  Sivartha. 

eye,  ear,  tongue,  nose  and  tactile  sense  are  all  located  in  front." 
Note  that,  as  shown  in  this  figure,  the  breast  and  pubes  are 
ruled  over  by  Venus,  while  the  nates  are  under  the  malignant 
influence  of  Saturn,  and  are  the  seat  of  aversion,  whence  the  al- 
most universal  invitation  to  kiss  them,  when  one  wishes  to  express 
contempt. 

"The  physical  use  of  every  part  of  the  face  (Fig.  301)  is  the 
base  of  its  mental  use — the  social  organs,  or  those  of  affection 
and  love  'are  sweet.'  The  affection  of  the  mother  is  actually  con- 
nected with  the  physical  nourishment  of  the  child.  The  faculties 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


487 


of  sex-love,  such  as  devotion,  desire,  mating  and  luxury,  have 
their  signs  in  the  fulness  and  breadth  of  the  red  part  of  the  lips. 
The  lips  are  the  most  sensitive  organs  of  touch  of  any  of  the  face 
and  this  sense  is  closely  connected  with  all  expressions  of  sex- 
affection. 

"The  body  is  the  foundation  on  which  the  mind  is  built 
(Fig.  302).  Each  division  of  the  bodily  functions  corresponds  in 
its  character  with  a  division  of  the  mental  faculties — which  retain 
a  close  sympathy  of  action  with  the  corresponding  parts  of  the 
body.  The  front  part  of  the  brain  is  connected  with  the  front 


Fig.  302.— From  the  ' '  Book  of  Life, ' '  by    Sivartha. 

part  of  the  body  and  limbs,  and  the  back  with  the  back  part  of 
these.  The  upper  and  the  lower  parts  of  the  body  repeat  each 
other  in  action  and  sympathy.  The  anatomists  have  shown  that 
the  nose  is  connected  with  the  anus;  the  upper  lip  with  the  peri- 
neum ;  the  mouth  with  the  genitals ;  the  tongue  with  the  penis  and 
the  clitoris  and  the  chin  with  the  pubes." 

Marcellinus  (IV  Century  A.D.)  said  of  Roman  patricians, 
"when  anyone  meets  and  begins  to  salute  them  *  *  *  they 
offer  their  knees  or  hands  to  kiss;"  persistent  flatterers  tried  to 
kiss  their  thighs,  but  when  the  patron  impatiently  turned  away, 
the  kiss  was  apt  to  be  bestowed  on  the  back  part  of  the  thighs,  or 
even  on  the  nates. 


488 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


Worship  of  Alma  Natura,  or  of  the  Nourishing  Power  of  Nature 
(Worship  of  the  Breast) 

We  now  come  to  the  consideration  of  the  worship  of  the 
breast.  The  most  beautiful  feature  of  a  woman  is,  beyond  doubt, 
the  bosom  with  the  breasts;  the  Kabbalah  (p.  194)  makes  it  the 
symbol  for  beauty.  The  bosom  of  the  woman  has  been  held  sa- 
cred in  all  times  as  the  throne  of  love,  the  seat  of  affection,  and 
among  the  ancients  was  held  especially  sacred  to  Venus,  Goddess 
of  Love. 


Fig.  303. — Venus  nursing  the  Loves. 

One  writer  said  that  the  bosom  of  woman  exhausts  the  pos- 
sibilities of  form-beauty,  and  that  nothing  more  exquisitely  beau- 
tiful exists  or  can  be  imagined. 

The  breast,  apart  from  the  aesthetic  function  of  charming 
the  male,  is  for  the  purpose  of  nourishing  the  offspring,  as  shown 
in  this  illustration,  entitled:  Venus  Nursing  tlie  Loves  (Fig.  303). 

The  breast  of  woman  has  been  worshipped  from  time  im- 
memorial, and  has  given  rise  to  the  most  sacred  religious  senti- 
ments and  symbols.  About  the  breast  have  clustered  some  of  the 
sweetest  memories  and  the  purest  practices  of  mankind.  Man 
finds  refuge  from  business  cares  and  worries,  finds  peace  and  con- 
tentment in  the  "bosom  of  his  family."  The  calm  delights  of 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  481) 

handling,  fondling,  kissing  and  caressing  the  breast  of  his  wife 
far  outweigh  in  lasting  happiness  the  intenser,  briefer  and  less 
refined  pleasures  of  sex. 

''My  beloved  is  like  a  bundle  of  myrrh  to  me;  his  head  shall 
lie  between  my  breasts  all  the  night;"  sang  the  bride  in  Solomon's 
Song;  and  Solomon  said  in  Proverbs  (v,  18,  19):  "rejoice  with 
the  wife  of  thy  youth;  let  her  breasts  satisfy  thee  at  all  times; 
and  be  thou  ravished  always  with  her  love." 

Roman  lovers  were  in  the  habit  of  having  their  drinking  cups 
modeled  after  the  shapes  of  the  breasts  of  their  sweethearts  or 
mistresses ;  a  cast  of  the  breast  was  taken  and  the  interior  of  the 
cup  was  moulded  upon  the  outside  of  this  cast,  often  in  gold. 

In  some  Arabian  tribes  a  man  who  is  pursued  in  blood-feud 
and  closely  pressed  by  his  enemies,  will  take  refuge  in  a  strange 
tent  or  camp  and  kiss  the  bare  breast  of  a  woman ;  he  thereby  be- 
comes a  son  to  her,  a  brother  of  her  sons  and  a  relative  of  her 
relatives,  as  well  as  a  member  of  her  tribe,  and  he  will  be  pro- 
tected as  such,  for  it  is  considered  that  he  has  sucked  at  her 
breast.  This  same  idea  was  already  expressed  in  the  Song  of 
Solomon  (viii,  1) :  0  that  thou  wert  as  my  brother,  that  sucked 
the  breasts  of  my  mother!" 

The  adoration  of  the  breast,  in  the  form  of  the  worship  of 
motherhood,  or  Madonna-worship,  is  the  highest  type  of  worship, 
and  is  ages  older  than  the  Christian  religion.  Its  symbols  are  the 
purest  and  the  least  carnal  of  the  symbols  of  sex-worship;  "the 
circle,"  says  Emerson  in  one  of  his  Essays,  "is  the  highest  em- 
blem in  the  cipher  of  the  world. ' ' 

The  breast  as  an  object  of  worship  is  here  shown  (Fig.  304) 
in  profile  on  the  bosom  of  an  Egyptian  goddess.  That  she  is  a 
goddess  is  shown  by  her  holding  the  ankh  or  symbol  of  life  in  her 
hand,  as  well  as  by  the  sceptre  with  the  profile  breast. 

In  ancient  Egyptian  hieroglyphics  the  signatures  of  kings, 
queens,  etc.,  were  enclosed  in  a  panel-like  figure,  called  a  cartouche. 
The  deciphering  of  these  hieroglyphics  was  made  possible  by  the 
finding  of  the  "Rosetta  stone"  on  which  was  an  edict  in  three 
different  languages,  two  of  which  were  known,  and  led  to  the 
deciphering  of  the  third  in  hieroglyphics.  Hieroglyphics  in  early 
times  were  a  form  of  ideographs  or  picture-writing,  but  later  on 
became  phonetic  representatives  or  letters,  only  these  letters  were 
in  the  shape  of  animals,  etc.,  instead  of  the  arbitrary  signs  we  use. 


490 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


The  language  was  old  Coptic,  a  language  which  was  known  when 
the  Bosetta  stone  was  found. 

Consider  the  cartouche  or  signature  of  Cleopatra  (Fig.  306), 


Fig.  304. — Ma  or  Maut,  the  Great  Mother.         Fig.  305. — The     goddesses     of     North 
Egyptian  temple  sculpture.  Egypt  and  South  Egypt,  crowning  Ptol- 

emy.    Notice  the  breasts. 


EOPA 


Fig.  306. — Cartouche     or     signature     of         Fig.  307. — Annunciation,     from    the 
Cleopatra,  from  the  Rosetta  stone.  Bruchsaal   Evangelarium,    Carlsruhe,    end 

of  XII  Century. 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  491 

in  the  upper  line;  the  lower  line  is  that  of  Ptolemy.  The  first 
sound  in  Cleopatra  is  that  of  K;  the  Gothic  word  for  knee  was 
keloi ;  therefore  the  triangle  of  a  bent  knee  was  used  to  represent 
this  letter.  The  name  for  lion  was  lanoi,  therefore  the  figure  of 
a  lion  represented  the  first  letter  of  the  word — 1 —  and  so  on. 

The  interesting  part  of  the  signature  of  Cleopatra  and  other 
Egyptian  queens  is  that  the  name  is  followed  by  the  representa- 
tion of  an  egg  and  a  profile  breast,  which  means  that  the  signa- 
ture is  that  of  a  female — a  woman.  The  cartouche  of  Ptolemy- 
male,  a  man — is  followed  by  no  symbols. 

We  have  already  met  with  a  similar  condition  in  the  figure 
of  an  Alaskan  totem  pole  (Fig.  293)  in  which  the  legs  are  labeled 
as  feminine  by  a  figure  of  a  yoni  and  a  profile  breast.  Ancient 
Egypt  and  Alaska  wrere  far  apart  before  Columbus  discovered 
America,  yet  we  have  here  the  same  symbolism  to  express  the 
feminine. 

In  a  most  literal  sense  modern  science  teaches  Yonicitas  doc- 
trines, for  it  maintains  that  the  highest  manifestation  of  life,  to 
which  all  other  manifestations  are  subordinated,  is  the  ovum  or 
egg.  In  a  scientific  sense  the  human  ovum,  then  the  ovary  which 
produces  it  and  the  womb  in  which  it  develops  into  a  child,  and 
consequently  in  a  wider  sense,  woman,  who  contains  them  all,  is 
symbolic  of  the  best  and  greatest  achievement  of  creative  power 
in  nature. 

The  egg  has  in  all  ages  been  considered  a  sacred  emblem  of 
spring;  of  the  rejuvenation  of  nature  after  the  winter  sleep.  In 
Pagan  times  ornamented  eggs  were  presented  to  friends,  to  cel- 
ebrate the  re-awakening  of  life  in  the  spring;  and  this  Pagan 
festival,  but  thinly  disguised  as  being  emblematic  of  the  resur- 
rection of  Christ,  persists  in  our  Easter  festival  and  its  attend- 
ant gifts  of  Easter  eggs. 

Apuleius,  an  ancient  Roman  writer,  said:  "I  saw  in  the  egg 
the  emblem  of  inert  nature  which  contains  all  that  is  and  that  is 
possible  to  be." 

Two  eggs  are  given  to  a  Chinese  bridegroom  on  the  day  of 
his  marriage,  as  a  token  of  the  wish  that  his  wife  may  prove 
fruitful. 

Pictures  of  the  annunciation  often  contained  symbolic  sex 
references  during  the  middle  ages  (Fig.  307).  The  angel  that 
appeared  to  Mary  announced  to  her  (Luke  i,  31):  "Behold  thou 


492 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


shall  conceive  in  thy  womb  and  bring  forth  a  son  and  thou  shalt 
call  his  name  Jesus."  We  recognize  here  the  conventionalized 
"fleur-de-lis"  or  lily,  a  symbol  of  God,  as  the  agency  by  which 
Mary  was  to  conceive.  When  the  Christian  era,  or  our  present 
chronological  system  began,  about  the  Sixth  Century,  it  was  calcu- 
lated that  Christ  was  "conceived  in  the  womb"  on  the  25th  of 
March,  year  0.  However,  a  mistake  in  calculation  was  made,  and  it 


Fig.  308. — A    bronze    figure    found    in 
some   subterranean  temples  in   Sardinia. 


Fig.  309. — Assyrian  goddess  of  maternity, 
of  about  2100  B.C. 


is  now  known  that  Christ  was  born  in  the  year  4  B.C.,  or  four  years 
earlier  than  is  ascribed  to  the  beginning  of  our  era.  The  25th 
of  March  is  now  celebrated  as  the  feast  of  the  Annunciation. 

Later  on,  it  was  perhaps  realized  that  the  act  of  begetting  is 
generally  a  rather  private  affair,  so  the  birth  of  Christ  was  chosen 
as  a  festival,  and  was  celebrated  nine  months  later,  on  the  25th 
of  December. 

An  angel  also  announced  to  Elizabeth  that  she  would  bear  a 
son  who  was  to  prepare  the  way  for  Christ.  Fig.  283  on  page 
476  represents  the  meeting  of  Mary  and  Elizabeth,  by  an  artist 


SEX    AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


493 


of  Cologne,  about  the  year  1400,  or  about  500  years  ago.  Note 
that  in  this  altar-piece  both  are  represented  "with  child"  or  preg- 
nant, as  indicated  by  the  fulness  of  abdomen  as  well  as  by  the 


Fig.  310. — Aztec  Madonna;   painting. 


Fig.  311. — Aztec  Madonna;  sculpture. 

symbol  of  the  "door  of  life."    John  kneels  in  the  womb  in  adora- 
tion of  Christ  and  Mary. 

Quite  recently  some  valuable  finds  were  made  in  some  under- 
ground temples  in  Sardinia.  Among  them  were  bronze  figures 
of  a  woman  and  child  (Fig.  308).  These  figures  may  have  been 


494  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

votive  offerings,  but  if,  as  is  more  likely,  they  represented  a 
mother-deity,  then  it  is  the  oldest  madonna-worship  of  which  we 
know,  as  these  figures  are  estimated  to  be  about  ten  thousand 
years  old,  or  about  six  thousand  years  older  than  the  Assyrian 
goddess  of  maternity  who  had  before  this  find  been  supposed  to 
be  the  oldest  madonna  idol;  and  it  is  five  or  six  thousand  years 
older  than  the  Egyptian  Isis-worship,  of  which  we  have  many  fig- 
ures and  representations. 

Figure  309  represents  the  Assyrian  Goddess  of  Maternity, 
just  referred  to.  This  figure  is  estimated  to  be  about  four  thou- 
sand years  old.  This  same  idea,  the  worship  of  motherhood,  is 
shown  in  this  Aztec  painting  of  a  madonna  (Fig.  310),  found  in 
a  pre-historic  Yucatan  temple  ruin ;  the  madonna  sits  on  a  throne, 
suckling  her  child.  Here  is  another  Aztec  madonna  (Fig.  311), 
resembling  more  or  less  closely  our  modern  sculptures  of  a 
madonna. 

Parthenogenesis 

Supernatural  impregnation,  or  conception  by  a  virgin,  so- 
called  "parthenogenesis"  or  "immaculate  conception"  is  a  fea- 
ture of  many  religions;  it  was  believed  by  the  credulous  and 
superstitious  of  many  lands  that  a  virgin  might  conceive  without 
a  man,  supernaturally ;  the  idea  occurs  in  many  mythologies  and 
religions. 

Heitzi-Ibib  is  a  Hottentot  deity  who  was  believed  to  have 
been  born  of  a  cow;  sometimes,  however,  a  human  virgin  is  said 
to  be  his  mother;  she  became  pregnant  after  eating  of  a  certain 
plant. 

The  Thlinkeets  of  Alaska  relate  of  their  god  Yehl  that  he 
was  miraculously  conceived  by  his  mother  who  swallowed  a  peb- 
ble which  impregnated  her. 

The  Eig-Veda  says  that  Indra  was  miraculously  born  of  a 
virgin  cow,  a  heifer. 

The  Apis  god  in  Egypt  was  said  to  have  been  miraculously 
born  of  a  virgin  cow  who  was  impregnated  by  a  moonbeam  or  a 
flash  of  lightning. 

The  Mexican  god  of  war,  Huitzilopochtli,  was  born  of  a  vir- 
gin, a  devout  person  who  one  day  while  attending  in  a  temple, 
saw  a  ball  of  feathers  floating  before  her  in  the  air;  she  took  the 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  495 

feathers  and  deposited  them  in  her  bosom,  soon  after  which  she 
found  herself  pregnant  and  in  due  course  of  time  the  dread  deity 
was  born. 

The  Greeks  believed  that  after  the  god  Jupiter  in  the  form 
of  a  swan  had  impregnated  Leda,  she  laid  two  eggs  (Fig.  312) 
from  each  of  which  twins  were  hatched ;  Castor  and  Clytemnestra 
issued  from  one,  and  Pollux  and  Helen  from  the  other.  These  be- 
came prominent  characters  in  Homer's  Iliad. 

The  Greeks  accepted  as  a  fact  that  a  virgin  or  a  female  could 
give  birth  to  children  without  the  cooperation  of  any  male,  not 
even  a  god ;  Hesiod  related  as  clear  a  case  of  parthenogenesis  or 


Fig.  312. — "Leda  and  Swan,"  from  a  painting. 

genesis  without  a  male,  as  is  that  of  the  phylloxera  (see  p.  64). 
Hesiod  said:  "Night  bare  also  hateful  Destiny  and  black  Fate, 
and  Death ;  she  bare  Sleep,  likewise,  she  bare  the  tribe  of  Dreams ; 
these  did  the  goddess  gloomy  Night  bare  after  union  with  none." 

A  somewhat  peculiar  version  of  supernatural  birth  is  the 
Greek  story  of  Pygmalion ;  he  was  a  sculptor  and  fell  in  love  with 
a  statue  he  had  made ;  beseeching  Venus,  the  goddess  of  love,  to 
give  life  to  the  statue,  the  goddess  heard  his  prayer,  and  Pyg- 
malion married  the  miraculously  born  virgin. 

Also,  Rhea,  a  vestal  virgin,  bathing  in  a  water  sacred  to 
Mars,  became  pregnant  and  gave  birth  to  twins,  Remus  and  Rom- 
ulus. Amulius,  king  of  Alba,  threatening  to  punish  her  for  her 


496 


SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


transgression  of  the  vows  of  chastity  taken  by  vestal  virgins,  she 
claimed  that  Mars  himself  was  the  father,  and  she  was  spared  but 
the  two  children  were  exposed,  but  were  saved  by  being  suckled 
by  a  "she-wolf"— a  lupa  (Fig.  313). 

In  connection  with  this  story  it  should  be  borne  in  mind,  that 
an  arch  in  Latin  is  called  "fornix;"  that  under  the  arches  of  the 
Colosseum  congregated  the  lowest  class  of  prostitutes  in  Rome, 
who  there  committed  all  the  crimes  and  practiced  all  the  perver- 
sions they  could  conceive  of  or  that  were  demanded  by  their  male 
visitors,  hence  "fornicatio"  meant  the  practices  committed  under 
the  arches;  from  this  we  have  our  English  word  "fornication." 

Frequently  also,  these  women  robbed  or  even  murdered  un- 
wary men  who  displayed  wealth  or  perhaps  were  drunk;  hence 


Fig.  313. — Remus  and  Roniulus,  nursed  by  a  she-wolf. 

they  were  called  "she-wolves,"  and  it  was  one  of  these  women, 
Laurentia  by  name,  who,  coming  upon  the  exposed  infants,  was 
touched  with  instinctive  motherly  pity,  and  adopted  and  raised 
them. 

It  was  said  of  many  of  the  eminent  teachers  and  heroes  of 
antiquity  that  immaculate  conception  was  their  origin.  For  in- 
stance: Budantsar,  the  first  ruler  of  the  Mongols,  was  miracu- 
lously conceived  by  a  widow.  Gautama  (Buddha)  in  India  was 
born  of  a  virgin;  so  was  Fohi  of  China;  the  Shakarf  of  Thibet. 
In  Thibet  many  chutuktus  (cardinals)  are  considered  to  be  in- 
carnations of  deities  just  as  are  the  lamas.  The  early  Christians 
adopted  the  same  theory  to  account  for  the  birth  of  Jesus,  of 
Palestine. 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


497 


The  Chinese  believe  that  once  a  maiden  walked  in  the  fields 
and  a  rainbow  descended  from  heaven  and  embraced  her,  in  conse- 
quence of  which  she  conceived;  her  son  became  the  first  emperor 
of  China.  The  rainbow,  in  China,  is  a  serpent  deity;  therefore 
China  is  called  the  Celestial  Empire,  because  the  first  emperor 
was  begotten  by  a  celestial  deity.  The  emperor  of  China  is  called 
the  " Son  of  Heaven." 

Of  Lao-Tze,  already  mentioned,  who  was  a  celebrated  Chi- 
nese philosopher  who  lived  about  fifty  years  before  Chung-fu-tze 


Fig.  314. — The  goddess  Anukah  nurs- 
ing the  pharaoh  Barneses;  Egyptian  tem- 
ple. 


Fig.  31 ;). — The   Kphesian    Diana,   now   in 
the  Vatican  Museum,  Borne. 


(Confucius),  it  is  related  that  a  meteor  fell  from  heaven  and 
impregnated  his  mother  (see  also  p.  1C). 

Some  theologians  of  the  middle  ages  believed  that  Mary  was 
impregnated  through  her  ear  (!)  because  the  Bible  says:  (John 
i,  1)  "In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was  with 
God,  and  the  Word  was  God,"  (John  i,  14)  "and  the  Word  was 
made  flesh,  and  dwelt  among  us." 

Similar  ideas  were  held  in  Egypt  about  some  of  the  Phara- 


498 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


ohs,  who  were  generally  worshipped  as  gods ;  the  goddess  Anukah 
nursed  the  pharaoh  Rameses  II  (Fig.  314). 

Among  the  oldest  forms  of  madonna-worship  of  which  we 
have  positive  knowledge  is  the  worship  of  Isis ;  she  was  the  mother 
of  Harpokrat,  or  Horns,  the  myths  regarding  whom  resembled 
closely  some  of  those  told  about  Jesus.  Isis  was  sometimes  rep- 
resented as  a  cow,  or  with  a  cow's  head.  In  the  Louvre  is  a  beau- 
tiful bronze  statue  of  Isis  in  human  form.  (See  also  p.  433.) 

Originally  the  madonna  and  virgin  worships  were  probably 
not  the  same;  for  instance,  I  can  recall  no  story  that  Diana  had 


Fig.  316. — Devaki  nursing  Krishna;  the  tray  full  of  animals  has  the  meaning  of 
the  heads  on  the  base  of  the  Diana  of  Ephesus;  the  worshipper  forms  the  male  and 
female  symbols  with  the  fingers  of  her  right  hand. 

a  child  or  children.  But  these  two  worships  became  blended  in 
such  a  way  that  sometimes  Isis  was  considered  as  a  virgin-mother, 
while  others  considered  her  as  a  matron,  the  wife  of  Osiris  and 
mother  of  Horus  or  Harpokrat. 

After  the  introduction  of  Christianity  in  Egypt  the  Isis- 
worship  and  other  idolatry  was  discouraged  by  the  bishops  of  the 
Christian  church,  although  often  against  the  wishes  of  the  Egyp- 
tian Christians.  About  the  year  500  A.D.  there  was  such  a  strong 
tendency  in  Egypt  to  forsake  Christianity  and  go  back  to  the  wor- 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


499 


ship  of  the  Feminine,  or  Isis,  that  Cyril,  at  that  time  Patriarch  or 
Bishop  of  Alexandria,  introduced  the  Isis-worship  into  Christian- 
ity by  declaring  Mary,  the  Mother  of  Jesus,  to  be  worthy  of  divine 
worship.  Thus  was  Maryolatry,  the  worship  of  the  Feminine, 
introduced  into  Christian  worship. 

The  myth  that  Mary  was  a  virgin  when  she  gave  birth  to 
Jesus  may  be  merely  the  transplanted  Isis-myth;  but  it  is  more 
generally  and  probably  more  correctly  ascribed  to  an  error  of 
translation  from  Hebrew  into  Greek;  the  words  for  "young 
woman"  and  " virgin"  in  Hebrew  resemble  each  other  just  as 
closely  as  the  equivalent  words  "Junge  Frau"  and  "Jungfrau" 
in  German;  the  translator  of  the  gospels  from  Hebrew  to  Greek 
made  the  error  of  translating  the  Hebrew  word  for  "young 


Fig.  317. — Mother  Earth  as  Madonna,  Alchemistic;  goat  nursing  Hercules,  and  a  she- 
wolf  nursing  Remus  and  Romulus. 

woman"  into  the  Greek  word  for  "virgin,"  and  the  error  in 
course  of  time  became  an  article  of  orthodox  belief. 

You  have  no  doubt  read  in  the  Book  of  Acts,  how  St.  Paul 
came  to  Ephesus  to  preach,  and  how  it  happened  to  be  a  holiday 
and  all  the  populace  was  shouting:  "Great  is  the  Diana  of  the 
Ephesians!"  (Acts  xix,  28  and  34). 

This  (Fig.  315)  is  the  statue  of  the  goddess  who  was  wor- 
shipped in  the  temple  at  Ephesus  at  that  time;  it  is  now  in  the 
Museum  of  the  Vatican,  at  Eome.  Her  multiple  breasts  signify 
that  her  nourishing  powers  sufficed  for  all  created  beings,  which 
is  further  symbolized  by  the  many  animal  heads  on  the  pedestal. 

Figure  316  is  not  a  picture  of  the  Madonna  Mary,  but  is  an 


500 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


ancient  picture  of  Devaki  nursing  Krishna,  who  was  an  atavar  or 
incarnation  of  Vishnu,  and  is  reputed  to  have  been  born  much 
earlier  than  Gautama  or  Buddha;  I  have  failed  to  find  a  definite 
date  for  the  birth  of  Krishna,  but  it  was  probably  between  1000 
and  500  B.C.  The  myths  concerning  Krishna  resemble  those  told 
also  about  Horus  and  Jesus,  and  some  authors  believe  that  they 
are  one  and  the  same  stories  accepted  by  different  people.  All 
three  were  called  Saviors  or  Eedeemers. 

The  trays  full  of  animals  have  the  same  significance  as  the 


Fi<r.  318. — Juno   as   a   Madonna. 


Fig.  319.— "  Madonna    and     Child,"     by 
Lorenzetti. 


heads  of  animals  on  the  base  of  the  pedestal  of  the  Diana  of  the 
Ephesians.  Note  the  hands  of  the  worshipper;  the  sign  of  the 
yoni  made  with  the  thumb  and  the  index  finger,  and  the  other  three 
fingers  extended  as  a  symbol  of  the  masculine  triad  or  trinity. 
We  often  speak  of  "Mother  Earth;"  Earth,  as  Gea,  is  as 
old  a  deity  as  the  beginning  of  Greek  mythology.  The  conceit 
is  old  and  general  and  the  names  given  to  this  goddess  in  various 
lands  were  so  similar  as  to  argue  a  common  origin.  Ma  or  Mama 
means  Mother  in  nearly  all  languages  of  the  world.  Ma  or  Maut 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


501 


was  an  Egyptian  deity;  she  was  Earth,  the  "Good  mother."  We 
learn  from  the  Rig-Vedas,  the  sacred  books  of  the  Hindus,  that 
all  things  were  produced  by  Brahma  through  union  with  Maya, 
the  "good  mother  of  all  the  gods  and  all  other  beings."  Maya 
is  still  worshipped  in  India.  She  was  also  worshipped  in  ancient 
Greece  and  Rome,  under  the  name  of  Maia,  the  daughter  of  At- 
lantis; she  was  "Bona  Dea"  the  good  goddess,  the  good  Dame, 
the  mother  of  the  gods;  her  worship  extended  over  Europe,  as 
Maye  in  France  and  Spain,  May  Queen  in  England,  etc.  In  pre- 


Fig.  319-A.— "Jesus  and  St. 
John,"  by  Raphael.  Church  of  St. 
Peter,  Perugia,  Italy. 


Fig.  319-B.— "Mother  and  Child," 
by  Hugues. 


historic  Mexico  she  was  worshipped  as  Mayoel,  the  "mother  of 
the  gods  and  men;"  and  since  about  500  A.D.  her  worship  has 
been  officially  recognized  by  a  large  portion  of  Christendom  under 
the  name  of  Maria  (Ma-[r]-ia),  the  good  mother,  our  Lady,  Notre 
Dame,  Mother  of  God,  Madonna,  Queen  of  Heaven. 

Ma  means  Earth  or  Nature,  and  the  whole  worship  means 
thanks  to  Mother  Earth  who  brought  forth,  nourishes  and  sus- 
tains. Figure  317  represents  Mother  Earth  as  a  Madonna. 

Juno,  the  wife  of  Jupiter,  was  also  represented  as  a  madonna 


502 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


by  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Eomans  (Fig.  318).     She  was  called 
' 'Mother  of  the  Gods." 

Here  is  a  copy  of  a  painting  by  Lorenzetti,  a  well-known 
Italian  painter,  of  the  "Madonna  and  Child"  (Fig.  319).  Kuskin, 
speaking  of  the  worship  of  Mary  in  Florence,  said:  "The  Ital- 
ians would  not  now  worship  the  Madonna,  if  countless  Greeks  and 
Goths  had  not  for  ages  bowed  in  adoration  before  the  Virgin;" 
and  in  another  place,  speaking  of  Giotto,  he  says:  "But  Giotto 
came  from  the  fields  and  saw  with  his  simple  eyes  a  lovelier  worth, 


Fig.  320. — The  Madonna  gives  St.  Bern- 
hard  of  Clairvaux  a  taste  of  her  milk. 


Fig.  321. — Mary,   Queen    of   Heaven. 


and  he  painted — the  Madonna  and  St.  Joseph  and  the  Christ- 
yes,  by  all  means  if  you  choose  to  call  them  so,  but  essentially— 
Mamma,  Papa,  and  the  Baby." 

It  was  related  of  St.  Bernhard  of  Clairvaux  that  the  Virgin 
Mary  appeared  to  him  and  granted  him  a  taste  of  milk  from  her 
breast  as  a  mark  of  especial  favor.  This  painting  (Fig.  320)  is 
of  the  year  1450  A.D.  In  Germany  a  wine  is  made  which  is  called 
" Lieb-f rauen-milch "  (dear  lady's  milk  or  madonna  milk),  which 
is  reputed  peculiarly  well-flavored  and  is  highly  esteemed. 

Madonna-worship  is  the  Christianized  worship  of  the  breast, 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


503 


or  of  motherhood.  The  words  "Ma  donna"  are  Italian  and  mean 
"my  lady."  The  madonna  is  generally  represented  in  altar- 
sculptures  as  holding  her  child,  more  rarely  as  nursing  it;  she  is 
sometimes  crowned,  even  with  a  real  jeweled  crown  in  richer 
churches,  and  is  called  "Queen  of  Heaven"  (Fig.  321). 

Human  ideas  have  never  conceived  a  holier  object  for  our 
sympathy  and  tender  regard  than  a  mother  with  her  child,  and 
the  religions  of  all  ages  have  delighted  in  holding  before  us  this 
subject  for  our  adoration.  The  mother  and  child  is  a  popular  sub- 
ject for  illustration  in  modern  art  (see  Fig.  319-B). 


Fig.  322. — A  madonna  figure  (clay  pot- 
tery) found  where  East  St.  Louis,  Illi- 
nois, now  is.  The  figure  belongs  to  Prof. 
H.  M.  Whelpley,  of  St.  Louis. 


Fig.  323. — Madonna  consolatrice,  by  Bou- 
guereau. 


Even  in  the  art  of  the  mound  builders  this  subject  is  repre- 
sented (Fig.  322).  I  am  not  sufficiently  familiar  with  the  mound 
builders'  art  to  venture  a  guess  about  the  motif  of  this  vessel,  but 
some  authorities  on  the  subject  do  not  think  it  had  any  reference 
to  madonna  worship.  To  me  it  appears  to  be  the  same  idea  ex- 
pressed in  the  Aztec  art — madonna  cult ;  but  even  if  it  merely  shows 
a  mother  and  her  child,  it  shows  that  this  subject  appealed  to  the 


504  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

esthetic  emotions  of  the  prehistoric  inhabitants  of  North  Amer- 
ica, as  it  did  to  other  people  elsewhere. 

The  "Consoling  Madonna,"  by  Bouguereau,  is  an  example 
of  the  ideally  highest  type  of  womanhood,  the  madonna  consol- 
ing a  mother  on  the  death  of  her  child  (Fig.  323) ;  we  find  this 
type  among  the  "sisters"  of  the  Catholic  church,  among  the 
"deaconesses"  of  the  Protestant  churches,  and  among  the  nurses 
of  our  hospitals,  and  especially  among  the  heroic  nurses  of  the 
Bed  Cross;  God  bless  them  all,  Protestant,  Catholic  or  Infidel; 
these  Sisters  of  Charity  deserve  the  adoration  of  every  true  man ! 

Scott  expressed  the  same  idea  in  one  of  his  poems : 

"0,  woman!    In  our  hours  of  ease 
Uncertain,  coy  and  hard  to  please; 
And  variable  as  the  shade 
By  the  light  quivering  aspen  made; 
When  pain  and  anguish  wring  the  brow 
A  ministering  angel  thou!" 

During  the  French  Revolution,  toward  the  end  of  the  Eight- 
eenth Century,  the  French  people  worshipped  woman  in  the  shape 
of  a  statue  of  Nature,  from  whose  bare  breasts  flowed  streams 
of  water.  Also,  as  an  actual  woman,  the  "Goddess  of  Reason" 
(Fig.  324),  who  was  carried  in  triumph  through  the  streets  of 
Paris  to  the  Cathedral,  where  she  was  placed  on  an  altar  and 
worshipped  as  a  Divinity. 

Underlying  all  yonic  forms  of  religion  are  the  same  ideas 
which  we  find  in  Comte's  "Religion  of  Humanity."  This  rejects 
all  theories  of  the  supernatural  and  declares  that  the  Supreme 
Object  of  the  individual  love  and  devotion  should  be  Humanity. 

"Humanity  is  but  an  abstraction  and  forbids  the  glow  of 
adoration  with  which  service  is  touched  in  all  religions  which 
offer  a  personified  object  for  adoration.  As  an  aid  to  their  faith 
nearly  all  religions  recognize  sacred  symbols,  not  indeed  to  be 
confounded  by  clearer  minds  with  the  original  object  of  adora- 
tion, but  worthy  of  reverence  in  its  place  as  its  special  repre- 
sentative and  reminder.  In  precisely  this  sense  the  sacred  em- 
blem of  Humanity  is  Woman.  In  woman  Humanity  is  enshrined 
and  made  concrete  for  the  homage  of  man. 

"The  adoration  of  woman,  which  may  almost  be  called  the 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


505 


natural  religion  of  the  modern  man,  springs  from  his  recognition, 
instinctive  when  not  conscious,  that  she  is  in  an  express  sense, 
as  he  is  not,  the  type,  the  representative  and  the  symbol  of  the  race 
from  which  he  springs,  of  that  immortal  and  mystical  life  in 
which  the  secret  of  his  own  is  hid.  She  is  this,  not  by  virtue  of 
her  personal  qualities,  but  by  virtue  of  her  mother-sex  which 
consecrates  her  to  the  interests  of  the  race." 

"Woman,  any  woman,  every  woman,  is  marvelous  enough. 
But  when  we  think  of  all  they  stand  for,  the  fineness  of  them 
compared  with  our  man  grossness,  that  wonderful  power  of  crea- 
tion in  them — their  mother-sex — their  exquisite  delicacy,  com- 
bined with  the  big-souled  capacity  for  sacrifice  and  suffering  that 


Fig.  324. — "Goddess  of  Reason,"  French  Revolution,  from  a  painting  by  Coessin. 

dwarfs  any  of  men's  petty  burdens  into  insignificance — God 
knows,  a  man  should  bow  his  knee  in  adoration  before  even  the 
least  of  them!" 

The  extent  to  which  the  mention  of  "mother"  appeals  to  our 
minds,  especially  in  times  of  distress,  was  shown  at  one  of  the 
largest  cantonments  when  a  great  opera  singer  asked  the  soldiers 
to  select  the  song  they  wanted  sung.  Out  of  a  dozen  popular  num- 
bers submitted,  the  choice  was  overwhelmingly  in  favor  of  a  mother 
song. 

This  adoration  of  woman  finds  expression  in  many  defer- 


506 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


ences  and  courtesies  that  real  men  pay  to  women,  and  it  finds  its 
most  striking  expression  in  the  "Law  of  the  Sea:"  "Women  and 
Children  First!" 

No  nobler  example  of  the  worship  of  woman  was  ever  seen 


Fig.  325. — Sinking  of  the  Titanic. 


Fig.  326. — "The  Lion  in  Love,"  by  Gardet. 

than  in  the  case  of  the  Titanic  Disaster  (Fig.  325),  when  1,500 
men  went  to  their  deaths,  that  women  and  children  might  live. 

"Greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this,  that  a  man  lay  down 
his  life  for  his  friends"  (John  xv:13),  says  the  Bible.  Then  the 
laying  down  of  life  fo^r  strangers,  only  because  they  are  women, 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


507 


must  be  greater  than  love.     It  is  religion — the  Worship  of  the 
Mother-Sex ! 

"The  Virgin-ideal  has  been  set  up  by  the  larger  part  of 
Christendom  as  the  object  of  Divine  honors.  The  Feminine,  not 
the  Masculine,  ideal  supplies  the  inspirations  of  art  and  the  ro- 
mance of  literature.  Man's  tendency  to  worship  woman,  while 
naturally  blending  with  his  passionate  attraction  toward  her, 
does  not  spring  from  the  instinct  of  sex,  but  from  the  instinct  of 
race"  and  is  found  in  its  highest  development  among  the  most 
civilized  people. 


Fig.  327. — "Worship,"  by  Binding. 
This  statue  represents  the  admiration, 
adoration,  adulation  and  veneration  of 
woman  hy  man. 


Fig.    o28. — "Night,"    by    de    Court  on. 
(See  poem  on  next  page.) 


They  who  think  most  reverently  on  this  mystery  of  sex,  feel 
the  pre-eminence  of  woman  most  profoundly  and  they  realize  the 
influence  which  Woman — Mother — Wife — Sweetheart — has  over 
our  thoughts  and  actions.  They  appreciate  the  words  of  the  poet 
Moore  in  his  poem,  "Sovereign  Woman:" 

"Disguise  our  bondage  as  we  will, 
'Tis  Woman — Woman  rules  us  still  I " 


508  SEX    AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

This  is  often  symbolically  represented  in  Art;  the  more  ani- 
mal and  passionate  nature  of  man  is  allegorized  by  a  wild  ani- 
mal which  is  tamed  and  held  in  control  by  gentle  woman,  as  in 
this  statue  of  The  Lion  in  Love  (Fig.  326). 

In  ancient  Rome,  in  the  theatres,  etc.,  the  same  idea  was 
often  very  realistically  represented.  Gigantic  winged  phalli  were 
represented  as  being  saddled,  bridled  or  harnessed,  and  ridden  or 
driven  by  naked  women;  these  frescoes  or  sculptures  were  in- 
terpreted as  ' '  Minerva,  or  divine  wisdom,  the  feminine  side  of  in- 
telligence, guiding  and  controlling  masculine  energies  and  pas- 
sions;" similar  representations  are  seen  in  Kaulbach's  painting: 
"Who  Buys  Love-Gods?" 

This  idea  of  adoration  of  womanhood  was  well  expressed  in 
this  wonderful  statue,  entitled  "Worship,"  by  Stephen  Sinding, 
a  Norwegian  sculptor  (Fig.  327). 

"God  took  the  dust  and  said:  'Lo,  I  am  there!' 
And  threw  it  forth  on  the  Empyrean  free ; 
And  Nature  saw  a  star  burst  forth  and  be 
A  throne  of  Life  and  Light  divinely  fair!" 

"Then  fell  a  rain-drop  in  his  hollow  hand; 
'Be  thou  its  sovereign  ocean,'  murmured  he, 
And  there  arose  a  silver-turbaned  sea 
To  frame  the  tropic  glory  of  the  land." 

"A  spirit  hovered  near;  he  staid  its  flight; 

'Love,  rule  this  life,  and  compass  all  the  earth!' 
And  lovely  Woman  sprang  to  instant  birth, 
And  where  she  reigns  are  Joy,  and  Peace,  and  Right!" 

ABOUT  GODDESSES 

Some  goddesses  have  been  mentioned  in  connection  with  the 
gods,  and  in  the  general  considerations  in  previous  pages, — we 
need  not  repeat. 

Assyrian  and  Babylonian — Mylitta  was  the  Phoenician  god- 
dess of  love;  she  conferred  the  pleasure  during  coition.  In  prac- 
tically all  countries  of  Asia  Minor  some  goddess  similar  to  or 
identical  with  Mylitta  was  worshipped. 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  509 

Astarte  was  the  Accadian  form  of  this  goddess ;  she  was  wor- 
shipped in  what  is  now  Mesopotamia.  From  the  Accadians  prob- 
ably originated  all  the  coarser,  or  unchaste  ideas  and  practices  of 
worship.  From  them  also  was  obtained  the  consecration  of  the 
seventh  day,  which  was  transmitted  from  them  to  the  ancient 
Jews,  from  whom  we  inherited  it.  The  Tyrian  Astarte  (also  called 
Tanis)  seems  to  have  been  propitiated  by  licentious  and  promis- 
cuous sexual  excesses  in  her  temples. 

Ishtar  or  Astarte  (Ashtoreth,  Ashera,  Cybele,  etc.)  had  a  sim- 
ilar function  as  Siva  in  India — Destruction  and  Reproduction. 
From  the  Accadians,  Phoenicians,  etc.,  her  worship  extended  to 
Greece,  but  here  she  became  known  as  Aphrodite,  the  goddess  of 
beauty  and  sensual  love ;  the  Greeks  considered  doves  and  pigeons 
sacred  to  her,  because  they  are  the  most  prolific  of  birds. 

Of  the  Zodiac  signs,  Virgo,  the  Virgin,  represented  Ishtar, 
the  Assyrian  Venus  or  Isis;  these  goddesses  were  said  to  be  both 
mothers,  and  virgins;  just  as  is  the  case  in  modern  Christian 
doctrine. 

Semiramis  was  a  mythical  queen  of  Assyria,  but  what  is  told 
about  her  is  only  a  variant  of  the  Ishtar  or  Astarte  myth.  The 
great  charms  of  Semiramis  and  her  sexual  excesses  are  simply 
stories  about  the  sexual  indulgences  in  the  Astarte  or  Ishtar 
worship. 

Egypt. — Isis  or  Hathor  corresponded  most  closely  to  Ishtar, 
and  many  of  the  attributes  of  the  Phoenician  goddesses  applied 
to  these  two  goddesses,  Isis,  the  wife  of  Osiris  and  Hathor,  the 
wife  of  Horus. 

Bast  or  Bubastis  was  an  Egyptian  goddess,  the  counterpart 
of  the  Greek  Diana,  goddess  of  chastity. 

The  " Great  Goddess"  of  Thebes  was  Maut,  Muth  or  Mut, 
which  means  Mother.  Similarly,  Ishtar  or  Ashtoreth  was  called 
the  Spouse,  the  Mother,  the  Nurse. 

The  ancient  Celts  (Irish)  worshipped  Ana,  the  wife  of  their 
chief  god  Ogma,  as  the  "mother  of  the  gods." 

Cybele  or  Rhea  Cybele,  mother  of  Zeus,  was  originally  a 
Phrygian  goddess ;  her  worship  originated  in  Asia  Minor  and  was 
probably  due  to  the  same  ideas  as  the  Ishtar  worship;  in  Crete 
and  Phrygia  her  worship  was  accompanied  by  orgiastic  dances, 
of  the  "danse  du  ventre"  or  "couchee-couchee"  type,  intended 
to  arouse  sexual  emotions.  In  Phrygia  she  was  the  goddess  of 


510  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

mountains,  caves  and  of  the  haunts  of  wild  animals.  Her  name 
Cybele  was  the  Phrygian  word  for  cave,  and  the  cave  was  the  sym- 
bol for  the  ' '  womb  of  nature. ' ' 

Cybele  was  called  the  "mother  of  god"  by  the  Greeks;  this 
name  was  applied  to  many  goddesses  in  many  different  mytholo- 
gies, and  formed  part  of  the  folklore  from  which  all  mythologies 
drew  their  ideas. 

Among  the  Lydians  Cybele  was  known  as  Omphale;  it  was 
part  of  the  fate  of  Hercules  to  serve  for  a  time  as  slave  to  Queen 
Omphale  (see  Fig.  371). 

Sesostris  was  an  Egyptian  pharaoh  (2300  B.C.)  ;  he  conquered 
the  greater  part  of  the  then  known  world,  including  the  greater 
part  of  Africa,  Lybia,  Palestine,  and  even  parts  of  Europe,  and 
as  far  east  as  India.  Wherever  he  went,  he  introduced  the  worship 
of  Isis  (the  worship  of  the  Feminine)  by  erecting  pillars  with  a 
yoni  or  doubly-pointed  ellipse  or  door  of  life  carved  on  their 
front. 

The  Historia  Umversalis,  published  in  1740,  says  that  he  did 
this  to  humiliate  the  nations  he  had  conquered,  by  suggesting  that 
they  were  not  men  but  a  race  of  women.  This  indicates  that  at 
the  date  of  publication,  little  or  nothing  was  known  in  regard  to 
the  worship  of  sex;  the  deciphering  of  Assyrian,  Egyptian  and 
other  ancient  sculptures  is  of  so  recent  a  date  that  we  may  expect 
a  far  greater  knowledge  on  this  subject  in  the  course  of  time. 

Greece. — The  worship  of  all  goddesses  in  their  capacities  as 
mothers  was  adopted  by  the  Greeks,  and  especially  in  the  form  of 
Aphrodite  the  sexual  attractiveness  of  womankind  was  deified 
and  personified. 

We  recall  Hesiod's  account  of  her  birth  from  sea-foam 
(p.  108) ;  because  she  originated  from  the  genitals  of  the  castrated 
Uranus  (Sky)  she  was  also  called  Urania,  but  nevertheless  this 
Greek  derivation  of  one  of  her  names  does  not  make  her  a  Greek 
goddess ;  she  was  originally  an  Asiatic  deity,  Astarte  of  the  Phoe- 
nicians, the  Mylitta  of  the  Assyrians,  etc. 

Paphos  was  a  city  on  the  west  coast  of  Cyprus ;  the  city  was 
of  Phoenician  origin.  Here  was  a  great  temple  devoted  to  the 
worship  of  Venus,  wherefore  she  was  sometimes  called  the  Pa- 
phian  goddess.  The  cultus  was  Asiatic,  that  is,  it  abounded  in 
sexual  excesses  in  the  temples,  which  were  not  of  Greek  origin  but 
of  lower  and  more  savage  Asiatic  origin.  This  is  important  to 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  511 

remember  when  we  consider  the  festivals,  as  the  unchaste  and 
obscene  practices  are  by  many  writers  described  as  Greek  in 
character,  whereas  they  were  of  Barbaric  introduction.  Diony- 
sus, too,  as  we  have  learned,  was  of  Asiatic  origin,  and  these  two 
deities,  Dionysus  and  Aphrodite,  were  mainly  responsible  for  the 
coarser  and  more  carnal  features  of  worship  among  the  Greeks 
and  Romans. 

Venus  (Aphrodite),  goddess  of  beauty  and  love,  was  essen- 
tially the  goddess  of  the  sensual  or  carnal  feature  of  love.  She 
was  married  to  Vulcan  (Gr.  Hephaestus)  but  she  was  not  particu- 
larly noted  for  fidelity  and  chastity ;  her  amours  with  Adonis,  and 
also  with  Mars,  were  celebrated  in  many  an  ancient  poem.  Amor 
(Gr.  Eros)  was  said  to  be  her  son. 

Before  the  introduction  of  sculpture,  she  was  represented  by 
a  stone  or  pillar,  just  as  Ashera,  Ishtar  or  Isis  were  represented, 
but  after  the  introduction  of  sculpture  she  was  represented  as  a 
woman ;  it  was  easier  to  represent  her  draped,  therefore  her  most 
archaic  sculptured  forms  are  as  a  draped  woman.  The  most  noted 
figures  of  Venus  are  the  Venus  at  Cnidos  [now  lost,  but  of  which 
the  Venus  de  Medici  (Fig.  144)  is  probably  a  copy]  and  the  Venus 
of  Milo  (Fig.  114).  The  half-draped  Venus  of  Milo  is  a  transi- 
tion form  from  the  fully  draped  figures  to  the  totally  nude  forms. 

When  Praxiteles  made  a  statue  of  Venus  for  the  temple  at 
Cnidos,  the  people  went  wild  over  its  beauty.  When  Venus  heard 
of  this  statue  in  her  honor,  she  went  to  the  temple  to  view  it,  and 
when  she  saw  it,  she  was  astonished,  and  exclaimed  complainingly : 
"When  did  Praxiteles  see  me  thus  unveiled!" 

As  the  universal  goddess  of  love,  she  presided  or  reigned 
over  every  phase  of  nature  and  reproduction;  her  worship  was 
based  on  the  same  underlying  ideas  of  the  Ishtar-Astarte-Mylitta 
worship  of  Asia  Minor;  her  worship  was  introduced  into  Greece 
about  1500  B.C.,  and  therefore  she  had  become  sufficiently  identi- 
fied with  Hellenic  religion  to  have  become  a  Greek  goddess  by 
Homer's  time. 

She  was  the  goddess  of  love  and  beauty,  and  no  people  ever 
venerated  and  adored  physical  beauty  more  highly  than  did  the 
ancient  Greeks.  At  first  she  was  considered  the  goddess  of  do- 
mestic or  connubial  love,  but  later  she  also  was  regarded  as  the 
goddess  of  the  hetaerae  or  public  women;  in  this  capacity  she 
provided  opportunities  for  coition  or  sexual  enjoyment  for  men 


512  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

who  otherwise  might  have  tried  to  seduce  or  rape  young  maidens, 
and  she  was  therefore  considered,  like  Artemis,  a  guardian  over 
the  chastity  of  young  women.  In  some  places  she  was  considered 
like  Ilithyia,  a  goddess  of  childbirth. 

In  all  ages  since  Praxiteles '  time,  artists  have  exhausted  their 
skill  in  representing  her  as  the  most  beautiful  naked  woman  in 
sculpture  or  painting. 

Venus  had  as  attendants  the  " Three  Graces"  or  the  Char- 
ites ;  Satyacravas  is  a  Hindu  name  for  the  sun ;  charis  is  an  old 
adjective  meaning  " bright,"  originally  applied  to  the  light-illu- 
mined clouds  at  sunrise  (the  dawn) ;  the  dawn  became  personified, 
like  most  other  natural  phenomena  and  the  goddess  Charis  was 
born.  As  the  sun  gives  light,  life  and  fertility,  Charis  became  his 
attendant  goddess,  a  goddess  of  the  freshness  and  vigor  of  life, 
of  fertility  and  of  growth. 

In  Greece  the  Indian  goddess  grew  into  a  triad,  and  the  Three 
Graces  (Fig.  233)  became  the  incarnation  of  all  sensuous  loveli- 
ness of  appearance  and  grace,  of  cheerfulness  and  attractiveness 
in  nature  and  in  the  mental  traits  or  morals.  They  were  Aglaia, 
Euphrosyne,  and  Thalia ;  they  were  attendants  at  the  court  of  Ve- 
nus, adding  to  the  attractiveness  of  her  retinue.  In  early  art, 
before  the  artists  had  become  skillful  enough  to  make  nude  stat- 
ues, they  were  represented  draped,  but  on  account  of  their  loveli- 
ness they  were  at  an  early  date  represented  naked,  and  are  now 
always  so  figured. 

Another  important  goddess  of  the  Greek  pantheon  was  Hera 
(Juno) ;  she  was  a  daughter  of  Cronus  and  Rhea,  and  was  there- 
fore a  full  sister  of  Zeus  as  well  as  his  wife.  Mankind  in  those 
early  days  had  no  ideas  of  incest,  and  gods  and  men  freely  mar- 
ried their  sisters.  Some  authors  do  not  agree  that  Juno  was  iden- 
tical with  Hera,  but  the  above  is  a  statement  of  the  more  popular 
belief. 

Juno  was  a  more  important  divinity  in  Rome  than  in  Greece. 
She  was  not  an  Aryan,  or  Asiatic,  goddess,  but  was  a  native 
Etruscan  (early  or  archaic  Greek)  divinity,  which  accounts  for 
the  much  purer  worship  and  conception  of  her  character,  for  the 
coarsely  sexual  ideas  held  in  regard  to  Venus  are  almost  entirely 
absent  from  her  worship.  She  is  concerned  almost  entirely  with 
human  affairs;  she  protected  the  state  and  society,  and  was  the 
patroness  and  careful  guardian  of  women.  Her  various  functions 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  513 

were  separately  worshipped,  so. that  under  the  name  of  Virginen- 
sis  she  watched  over  and  protected  young  maidens;  as  Pronuba 
Jugalis,  Domidn-ca,  etc.,  she  presided  over  marriage  ceremonies 
and  inducted  maidens  into  wifehood;  as  Matrona  she  presided 
over  their  married  life  and  as  Lucina  she  was  their  helper  and 
supporter  in  their  trials  during  childbirth.  In  her  honor  the  fes- 
tival of  the  Matronalia  was  held  in  March,  at  which  only  women 
of  unquestioned  reputation,  maidens  and  matrons  against  whom 
there  had  never  been  even  the  whisper  of  insinuation,  could  par- 
ticipate. 

She  had  as  attendants  also  innumerable  spirits,  called  Ju- 
nones,  female  genii,  or  guardian  angels,  one  of  whom  accompanied 
and  watched  over  every  girl  and  woman.  A  woman  swore  by  her 
Juno,  a  man  by  Jove,  but  a  lover  swore  by  the  Juno  of  his  sweet- 
heart. 

Juno  is  the  most  moral  goddess  of  antiquity,  one  of  the  few 
goddesses  against  whom  no  rumor  of  scandal  was  raised ;  she  was 
perhaps  too  frigidly  chaste,  even  according  to  our  present  stand- 
ards, and  like  in  human  society  today,  her  husband  sought  else- 
where the  happiness  that  her  austerity  denied  him;  she  was  the 
ardent  advocate  of  conjugal  fidelity  and  the  bitter  foe  of  infidelity ; 
wherefore  we  find  the  many  stories  of  her  persecutions  of  the 
companions  of  her  husband  in  his  love  affairs;  they  form  the 
theme  of  many  a  Greek  poem.  Juno  had  four  children,  Mars,  Vul- 
can, Hebe  and  Ilithyia. 

When  her  son  Vulcan  married  Aphrodite,  she  became  the 
mother-in-law  of  the  latter,  and  no  doubt  had  many  bitter  mo- 
ments over  the  escapades  of  her  daughter-in-law. 

Hebe  was  the  daughter  of  Zeus  and  Juno.  In  Greek  house- 
holds the  unmarried  daughters  served  the  refreshments  to  the 
guests  of  the  home.  As  the  gods  were  fashioned  on  the  pattern 
of  the  humans,  Hebe  became  the  cup-bearer  in  Olympia  to  dis- 
pense the  nectar  or  ambrosia  to  the  guests  at  her  father  Zeus' 
court. 

On  one  occasion,  while  serving  the  drinks  to  the  gods,  she 
accidentally  fell,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  expose  her  body  so  as  to 
shock  the  modesty  of  Minerva,  who  demanded  that  she  be  relieved 
as  cup-bearer.  Soon  afterwards  Hercules  died  and  was  made  a 
god  and  Juno  gave  him  Hebe  for  wife. 

lo  was  a  high  priestess  of  Juno  (or  Hera),  and  Jupiter  fell 


514  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

in  love  with  her ;  she  was  changed  into  a  white  cow,  but  the  ac- 
counts vary  as  to  the  "why;"  some  say  Jupiter  changed  her  to 
hide  her  from  the  rage  of  Juno,  others  say  that  Juno  changed  her 
in  jealous  revenge. 

Artemis,  or  the  moon,  presided  over  childbirth  and  assisted 
women  suffering  from  the  peculiar  ailments  of  women;  she  was 
therefore  a  gynecologist.  Associated  with  her  was  Carmenta,  the 
goddess  of  midwifery.  Carmenta  had  two  assistants,  goddesses 
who  presided  over  the  positions  of  the  foetus  in  the  womb;  they 
were  Prosa  and  Postverta,  and  they  were  implored  for  assistance 
according  to  whether  it  was  a  frontal  or  an  occipital  presentation. 
After  birth  the  goddess  Ossipaga  took  charge  of  the  child  and  pre- 
sided over  the  growth  of  the  bones;  of  course,  the  shape,  nature 
and  growth  of  the  bones  largely  determined  the  development  of 
the  infant  and  therefore  among  a  beauty-loving  people  like  the 
Greeks,  Ossipaga  was  of  considerable  importance. 

In  the  Moon  Fairy,  by  Kaulbach  we  have  a  modern  represen- 
tation of  the  moon  as  the  spender  of  blessings  on  the  people 
(Fig.  329). 

Among  the  goddess  attendants  of  Juno  was  Iris,  the  rainbow ; 
as  the  rainbow  united  heaven  and  earth,  Iris  was  called  the  golden- 
winged  messenger  of  the  gods  to  men. 

Hesiod  said: 

"Eurybia  too,  bare  to  Crius,  after  union  in  love,  huge  As- 
traeus  and  Pallas  *  *  *. 

"And  next  Phoebe  came  to  the  much-beloved  couch  of  Coeus; 
then  in  truth  having  conceived,  a  goddess  by  love  of  a  god,  she 
bare  dark-robed  Latona  *  *  *." 

Zeus  had  been  married  to  a  number  of  other  goddesses  be- 
fore he  married  his  sister  Hera  or  Juno.  One  of  these  earlier 
wives  was  Metis  (Intelligence).  Just  what  became  of  his  earlier 
wives,  whether  he  got  rid  of  them  by  divorce,  or  like  Henry  the 
Eighth  of  England,  by  killing  them,  I  do  not  know;  but  he  swal- 
lowed Metis,  in  consequence  of  which  Pallas  was  formed  and  was 
born  from  his  brain. 

She  was  known  also  as  Pallas  Athena  and  among  the  Eomans 
as  Minerva.  She  presided  over  skill  and  industry,  and  she  in- 
vented spinning  and  weaving,  or  the  manufacture  of  textile  fab- 
rics; she  tamed  horses,  played  the  flute  and  developed  to  some 
extent  the  arts  of  medicine. 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  515 

As  an  elemental  or  nature-goddess  she  presided  over  what 
took  place  in  the  sky ;  she  became  a  war  goddess,  referring  to  the 
wars  (storms)  in  the  clouds.  But  her  main  function  was  to  pre- 
side over  the  accomplishments  of  the  human  mind.  The  owl 
was  sacred  to  her,  and  was  therefore  called  the  bird  of  wisdom. 

Latona,  mentioned  above,  was  made  pregnant  by  Zeus,  and 
wandered  about  trying  to  find  a  place  where  she  might  be  deliv- 
ered and  avoid  the  persecutions  of  the  jealous  Juno.  She  came 
to  Delos,  at  that  time  a  rock  which  floated  in  the  sea ;  but  when  she 
alighted  on  it  the  gods  fixed  it  firmly  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  so 
that  Latona  might  rest  and  be  confined. 


Fig.  329.— "The  Moon  Fairy,"  by  Kaulbach. 

She  gave  birth  to  twins,  Apollo  and  Diana,  about  whom  more 
is  said  on  page  549. 

In  Lycia  Latona  was  a  goddess  of  fertility,  and  was  identi- 
fied with  the  earth  goddess ;  the  names  Leto,  Leda  and  Latona  are 
variants  of  the  Lycian  word  Lada,  which  means  Lady. 

Demeter  Thermophorus  was  the  goddess  of  marriage,  and  her 
worship  was  limited  to  women. 

Fortuna,  a  Eoman  goddess,  was  sometimes  called  Fortuna 
virilis;  women  prayed  to  her  because  she  secured  and  maintained 
for  them  the  affections  of  their  husbands. 


516 


SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 


Flora  was  the  Roman  goddess  of  flowers  (Fig.  330) ;  Ceres 
was  the  goddess  of  crops. 

Flora  was  an  ancient  Italian  deity ;  she  was  not  a  Greek  deity ; 
she  was  married  to  Zephyr,  the  Westwind.  She  was  said  to  have 
been  a  courtesan  who  became  very  wealthy,  and  she  established  a 
festival  in  her  own  honor,  the  Floralia,  the  main  features  of 
which  were  indulgences  in  the  practices  of  the  profession  in  which 
she  had  accumulated  her  wealth.  Naturally  this  idea  suggested 
many  licentious  ceremonies.  While  Flora  was  not  an  Asiatic 


Fig.  330.— Flora,  Goddess  of  Flowers. 

goddess,  her  worship  was  clearly  framed  after  the  model  of  that 
of  Venus  and  the  other  Asiatic  goddesses. 

About  Ceres  (Demeter)  we  will  speak  under  the  heading 
''Festivals"  on  page  568. 

The  Teutons  and  Norsemen  had  goddesses  who  were  very 
similar  to  the  goddess  Fortuna.  The  Norse  goddesses  Lofa  and 
Vor  were  protectors  of  lovers — the  first  because  she  united  the 
faithful  in  marriage,  the  second,  because  she  punished  the  faith- 
less. The  Teutons  had  a  mother  goddess  by  the  name  of  Zizi; 
from  her  name  the  Germans  no  doubt  got  the  word  zitzen  for 
teats  or  nipples,  and  we  in  turn  the  word  "titties"  or  "titts." 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  517 

From  absurd  ideas  of  propriety  these  two  words,  common  as  they 
are,  are  not  denned  in  some  dictionaries. 

The  Erinyes  were  Greek  goddesses  who  were  the  avengers  of 
human  misdeeds  or  iniquities ;  they  were  called  Furies  by  the  Rom- 
ans. 

The  Moerae,  or  Parcae,  or  Fates,  were  similar  to  the  Norse 
Norns  or  "AVeird  Sisters,"  representing  Past,  Present  and  Fu- 
ture. 

In  the  later  Greek  myths  the  Erinyes  were  also  three;  Alect 
(hatred),  Megaera  (jealousy),  and  Tisiphone  (revenge). 

Many  of  the  gods  and  goddesses  of  Greece  and  Egypt  were 
alike,  except  in  name,  as  the  languages  were  so  different.  We 
have  already  learned  that  many  of  the  ideas  of  the  Egyptians  and 
Aztecs  were  similar. 

Nath,  Pakht,  Sekhet,  Mut,  Suben  and  Nati  were  all  deities  of 
the  female  principle  in  ancient  Egypt.  It  does  not  mean,  how- 
ever, that  these  were  all  different  goddesses  but  they  may  have 
been  merely  different  names  in  different  parts  of  Egypt  for  the 
same  idea.  They  corresponded  in  a  general  way  with  the  Ishtar- 
Venus  cult. 

"When  and  how  the  Egyptian  ideas  were  transferred  to  Mex- 
ico, or  vice  versa,  has  caused  much  speculation ;  the  British  Ency- 
clopedia says  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  communication  ex- 
isted between  these  two  lands.  At  all  events  the  Aztecs  had  god- 
desses that  were  equivalent  to  Ceres,  Lucina,  Flora,  and  Venus, 
of  course  under  Aztec  names. 

The  early  Christians,  as  has  already  been  stated,  were  a  so- 
cialistic society  mostly  made  up  from  members  of  the  lower 
classes,  slaves,  laborers,  etc. ;  necessarily,  they  were  also  more  or 
less  ignorant  and  superstitious  and  credulous  enough  to  accept 
beliefs  that  could  not  appeal  to  the  educated  classes.  The  belief 
in  parthenogenesis,  birth  from  a  virgin,  was  so  general  a  feature 
of  religious  folklore  that  it  was  accepted  as  the  truth  by  people 
from  the  extreme  east,  as  China,  to  the  extreme  west,  not  only  of 
the  eastern  continent,  but  of  the  western  continent  as  well ;  we 
have  cited  examples  of  this  belief  from  Quiche  and  Mexico  to  the 
Thlinkeets  of  Alaska. 

Add  to  this  the  adoration  of  the  Roman  emperors  as  gods 
(which  was  really  only  extravagant  flattery  and  not  believed  by 
the  educated  people)  and  it  was  but  natural  that  the  early  Chris- 


518  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

tians  should  have  adopted  such  a  belief  in  regard  to  their  own 
God,  and  therefore  it  was  taught  at  a  comparatively  early  period 
that  Jesus  was  miraculously  born  of  a  virgin.  The  Prot-Evan- 
gelium  Jacobi  (Second  Century)  relates  some  particulars  about 
Mary  that  are  interesting;  her  father  was  a  shepherd  named 
Joachim  and  her  mother  was  Anna,  who  had  remained  childless 
to  old  age,  over  which  the  aged  couple  grieved  very  much.  An 
angel  announced  to  Anna  that  she  should  conceive,  and  in  due 
course  of  time  Mary  was  born.  From  her  third  to  her  twelfth 
year  Mary  spent  her  time  in  the  temple  "as  if  she  were  a  dove 
that  dwelt  there,  and  she  received  food  from  the  hand  of  an 
angel;"  Joseph  was  made  her  guardian  by  the  priests.  When  it 
was  discovered  that  she  was  pregnant,  Joseph  and  Mary  were 
brought  before  the  high  priest;  both  asserted  their  innocence  but 
they  were  acquitted  only  after  they  had  been  tried  with  ' '  the  water 
of  the  ordeal"  (see  Num.  v,  vs.  11  to  31).  That  she  was  a  virgin 
when  she  gave  birth  to  Jesus  is  accepted  as  a  doctrine  by  the 
Catholics  as  well  as  by  most  Protestant  Christian  faiths. 

But  in  the  Fifteenth  Century  a  theory  was  broached  that 
Mary  herself  had  been  conceived  in  a  similar  manner  because  the 
church  considered  it  improper  for  a  mere  'mortal  woman  "born 
in  sin"  to  be  the  mother  of  Jesus.  At  the  council  of  Basle,  in 
1439  A.D.,  it  was  decreed  that  it  was  not  contrary  to  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  her  mother  Anna  conceived  her  in  a  supernatural  man- 
ner; but  this  belief  was  left  optional  with  the  laity.  Some  uni- 
versities in  France  made  belief  in  this  doctrine  a  condition  for 
a  degree,  but  it  was  not  until  1849  that  Pope  Pius  IX  promulgated 
the  theory  of  the  "Immaculate  Conception"  to  be  an  article  of 
faith,  and  that  not  to  believe  was  heresy.  The  "Immaculate 
Conception"  therefore  does  not  refer  to  the  pregnancy  of  Mary, 
but  to  the  pregnancy  of  Anna. 

Nearly  thirteen  hundred  years  earlier  than  the  proclamation 
of  Mary's  immaculate  conception  the  church  had  disputes  over 
the  conception  of  Jesus;  in  the  earliest  periods,  Jesus  was  con- 
sidered a  man  like  other  men,  and  the  Christians  were  what  we 
now  call  Unitarians.  Nestorius,  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople 
(428-431  A.D.),  said  in  a  sermon:  "Let  no  one  call  Mary  the  Mother 
of  God,  for  Mary  was  a  human  being,  and  that  God  should  be  born 
of  a  human  being  is  impossible."  Nestor  and  his  followers  did 
not  deny  that  Mary  was  the  mother  of  Jesus,  nor  that  Jesus  was 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  519 

Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  but  they  protested  against  calling  her 
Theotokos  or  "Mother  of  God."  However,  the  influence  of  Cyril, 
patriarch  of  Alexandria,  prevailed,  and  the  general  folklore,  which 
named  so  many  goddesses  "Mother  of  God"  or  "Mother  of  the 
Gods"  was  also  accepted  into  the  Christian  faith. 

These  remarks  about  Mary  were  placed  under  the  heading 
of  "Goddesses,"  not  because  Mary  is  considered  as  a  goddess, 
but  because  she  is  considered  as  apart  from  all  human  women  by 
virtue  of  her  miraculous  conception  of  Jesus  and  her  own  miracu- 
lous birth.  Moreover,  she  is  worshiped  to  a  degree  far  above  the 
adoration  of  the  saints.  She  is  prayed  to  as  an  intermediary  be- 
tween mankind  and  her  son  Christ,  or  God. 

Mere  Mortal  Women 

In  the  classical  period  of  Arabian  supremacy  in  literature, 
during  the  "dark  ages"  in  Europe,  it  was  an  established  rule 
that  all  poems,  or  quasidehs,  no  matter  what  their  subject  might 
be,  must  begin  with  passages  or  stanzas  mentioning  women  and 
their  charms,  "so  that  the  hearts  and  the  minds  of  the  readers 
might  become  favorably  disposed  toward  the  poem."  For  this 
reason  the  En-Nerib,  a  celebrated  Arabian  poem,  begins  with 
verses  treating  of  women  and  love. 

A  story  somewhat  similar  to  that  about  Ahasuerus  and 
Esther  (see  p.  238),  is  told  about  a  Lydian  king.  The  story  of 
Esther  is  Persian  and  is  foreign  to  Jewish  literature.  In  Asia 
Minor,  as  in  the  Mohammedan  lands  today,  women  were  kept  in 
seclusion ;  therefore  Vashti  was  rightly  offended  when  her  hus- 
band, the  king,  wanted  to  show  her  to  his  guests.  Kemember  that 
in  those  days,  a  queen  wore  but  little  more  than  a  veil  (see  Nef- 
ert-Ari-Ahmes,  Fig.  89). 

Long  before  Alexander  the  Great,  the  Greeks  imported  silk 
at  Cos,  where  it  was  woven  into  a  gossamer  tissue,  the  famous 
cos  vestis,  which  revealed  rather  than  clothed  the  form.  This 
fabric  was  also  called  ventus  textilis,  or  textile  breath,  in  view 
of  its  extreme  thinness  and  transparency.  A  similar  fabric  was 
worn  by  rich  women  in  all  Oriental  lands. 

About  1170  B.C.  there  was  a  Lydian  king,  Candaules,  who  had 
an  exceedingly  handsome  wife  of  whose  beauty  he  boasted  to  his 
highest  minister,  Gyge.  The  latter  did  not  say  much  and  Candau- 
les thought  that  he  doubted  his  wrord. 


520 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


Candaules  hid  Gyge  in  his  room  so  that  when  the  queen  un- 
dressed, Gyge  might  see  the  queen's  beauty  for  himself.  But 
when  Gyge  attempted  to  sneak  from  the  room,  the  queen  saw  him, 
and  he  confessed  how  he  came  to  be  there.  She  was  very  angry 
and  sent  him  word  that  either  she  would  have  him  killed,  or  he 
should  kill  the  king  and  become  her  husband,  as  it  was  not  right 
that  anyone  should  live  that  had  seen  her  naked,  except  a  hus- 
band. So  Gyge  chose  to  become  king. 

Under  the  reign  of  Cambyses  (500  B.C.)  a  man  by  the  name 
of  Conon  was  condemned  to  be  locked  up  in  a  prison,  without 
food  or  drink,  until  he  starved  to  death.  His  daughter  asked 
permission  to  visit  him  daily,  which  was  allowed  her,  but  she  was 
first  carefully  searched  that  she  might  smuggle  in  no  food  nor 
drink.  When  after  some  time  her  father  showed  no  signs  of  weak- 


Fig.  331. — Antipater  murders  his  mother  Thessalonica. 

ening  a  watch  was  kept  on  her  and  she  was  caught  in  the  act  of 
giving  her  father  the  milk  from  her  breasts,  for  she  was  a  nurs- 
ing mother;  it  was  reported  to  the  authorities,  and  was  consid- 
ered so  notable  an  example  of  filial  love  and  duty  (piety,  as  it  was 
called  in  earlier  times)  that  they  pardoned  the  father  and  re- 
warded the  daughter. 

Cassandra  left  two  sons,  each  of  whom  aspired  to  the  crown. 
Antipater  (about  320  B.C.),  the  older,  thought  that  his  mother, 
Thessalonica,  inclined  to  favor  the  younger  and  he  became  so 
angry  that  he  went  to  kill  her  himself.  She  implored  him  "by  the 
breasts  that  had  nourished  him,"  at  the  same  time  exposing  her 
bosom  to  his  sight,  but  he  killed  her  nevertheless.  History  re- 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  521 

lates  this  as  if  the  act  of  impiety  towards  her  breasts  was  a  very 
heinous  aggravation  of  her  murder  (Fig.  331). 

When  Nero  (36-68  A.D.)  sent  executioners  to  kill  his  mother 
Agrippa,  she  bared  her  belly  to  them  and  asked  them  to  stab  her 
in  the  abdomen  because  it  had  borne  such  a  monstrosity  as  Nero. 

Under  the  emperor  Tiberius  a  traitor,  Sejanus,  was  arrested, 
and  he  and  his  whole  family  were  sentenced  to  be  beheaded. 
Now  it  happened  that  he  had  a  daughter  who  was  unmarried  and 
still  a  virgin;  but  Roman  law  said  that  no  virgin  might  be  put 
to  death.  So  Tiberius  ordered  the  executioner  to  ravish  the 
daughter  of  Sejanus  in  public,  so  that  it  might  be  generally 
known  that  she  was  no  longer  a  virgin ;  he  then  had  her  beheaded. 

Hipparchus,  King  of  Athens,  sought  to  seduce  Harmodium 
to  " Greek  Love"  (coitus  in  ano),  but  was  refused  by  Harmodius. 
Hipparchus  thereupon  seized  and  raped  the  sister  of  Harmodius, 
who  in  turn  revenged  his  sister  by  stabbing  Hipparchus  to  death, 
but  was  arrested  by  the  guards.  The  concubine  of  Harmodius, 
Leaena,  was  put  to  the  torture  to  find  out  any  accomplices  of 
Harmodius,  but  she  bit  off  her  tongue  and  spat  it  at  the  inquis- 
itors so  she  could  not  say  anything  against  the  friends  of  Har- 
modius. 

Tamerlane  (1402  A.  n.)  defeated  the  King  Bajazeth.  He 
carried  Bajazeth  about  with  him  in  an  iron  cage,  in  which  he  was 
fed  on  what  he  could  secure,  after  the  dogs  had  been  fed,  from 
their  leavings,  with  his  hands  tied  behind  his  back.  He  was 
taken  from  the  cage  and  compelled  to  get  down  on  hands  and 
knees  as  a  stool  when  Tamerlane  wanted  to  mount  his  horse. 
And  Bajazeth 's  wife,  a  beautiful  princess  of  Servia,  he  kept  as  a 
slave  to  serve  him  at  table,  nearly  nude,  with  Bajazeth  in  his  cage 
brought  where  he  could  see  this.  Bajazeth  at  last  beat  out  his 
brains  against  the  bars  of  his  cage. 

Mencius  (about  the  third  century  B.  c.)  was  a  great  Chinese 
philosopher,  considered  second  only  to  Confucius.  His  father 
died  when  he  was  three  years  old,  and  he  was  brought  up  by  his 
mother.  Her  praises  were  sung  by  a  great  writer  in  the  last 
century  B.  c.,  and  ever  since,  for  2,000  years  now,  she  has  been 
adored  as  the  " model  mother  of  China." 

Heinrich  von  Meissen  (1260-1318  A.D.)  was  a  poet  better 
known  as  Frauenlob.  He  wrote  poems  about  the  Holy  Virgin; 
lie  wrote  in  favor  of  saying  "Fran"  instead  of  "Weib,"  and  he 


522  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

wrote  much  in  exaltation  of  woman.  Hence  he  is  called  "Frau- 
enlob"  (the  Praise  of  Woman). 

And  in  these  days,  when  the  question  of  "votes  for  women" 
is  so  much  and  so  favorably  discussed  and  acted  upon,  the  fol- 
lowing, from  Persia,  is  refreshing  and  encouraging:  Babi  or 
Baby  is  a  modern  Persian  sect.  Persia  is  the  least  orthodox  of 
the  Mohammedan  lands,  for  the  prophet  himself  is  considered 
second  to  his  successor,  Ali,  and  his  sons.  It  was  founded  by 
Teyed  Mohammed  Ali,  assisted  by  three  apostles  and  one  woman, 
Zerryn-Taj,  better  known  as  Gourred-Oul-Ayn  ("consolation  of 
the  eyes")  bestowed  in  admiration  of  her  exceeding  loveliness. 
The  doctrines  are  pantheistic,  their  morality  is  pure  and  cheerful 
and  women  are  treated  better  than  by  any  other  Asiatic  people. 
Concubinage  and  polygamy  are  forbidden,  as  well  as  asceticism 
and  mendicancy.  A  council  of  nineteen  members  presides  over 
the  sect  and  it  is  a  rule  that  at  least  one  member  of  this  council 
shall  be  a  woman. 

Light  is  dawning  in  the  East! 

SEXUAL  UNION  AMONG  DEITIES 

General  Considerations 

Conjugal  couples  (sexual  union)  were  worshipped  in  many 
countries;  in  fact,  nearly  all  gods  in  all  nations  are  supposed  to 
have  a  sexual  mate ;  as  Brahma  and  Maya,  Siva  and  Kali,  etc.,  in 
India;  Osiris  and  Isis,  Ptah  and  Pasht,  etc.,  in  ancient  Egypt; 
Jupiter  and  Juno,  Vulcan  and  Venus,  etc.,  in  ancient  Greece  and 
Rome. 

In  the  early  period  of  Christianity  there  was  a  sect  called 
"Gnostics"  whose  peculiar  doctrine  was,  that  it  is  a  prime  duty 
of  every  man  to  follow  the  suggestions  of  his  instincts  or  desires. 
At  one  of  their  festivals  the  men  and  women  assembled  in  a 
darkened  room,  all  naked,  and  every  man  seized  a  woman  and 
cohabited  with  her;  in  the  darkness  this  led  to  promiscuous  and 
incestuous  license  in  the  name  of  religion. 

The  sign  of  the  Gnostics  (Fig.  332)  consisted  of  a  six-sided 
star,  composed  of  the  male  and  female  triangles  intertwined,  just 
as  the  real  pubic  hairy  triangles  of  the  man  and  woman  would 
also  form  this  six-sided  star  during  coition.  This  sign  is  known 
among  the  Jews  as  "David's  Shield,"  and  is  used  as  an  archi- 
tectural ornament  on  their  synagogues,  altars,  etc.;  it  is  also  em- 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


523 


broidered  on  the  canopy  held  over  the  bridal  couple  during  an 
orthodox  Jewish  wedding. 

In  India  it  is  called  Swastika,  meaning  a  symbol  or  amulet 
of  good  luck;  the  Saivas  mark  their  sacred  vases  with  this  sign; 
the  upright  pyramid  signifies  Siva,  who  with  these  three  points 
unites  in  himself  the  attributes  of  purity,  truth  and  justice;  the 
inverted  or  female  triangle  is  his  consort,  Sakti  or  Kali,  with  the 
same  attributes. 

The  Rosicrucians  used  it  frequently  in  this  form  and  with 
various  explanations,  and  also  in  another  form,  two  stone  or  wood 
triangular  blocks  superimposed  one  on  the  other. 

By  the  early  Christians  this  sign  was  engraved  on  medals 
which  were  worn  as  amulets  to  ward  off  evil  and  disease;  it  is 
now  often  used  as  one  of  the  pendants  in  the  markers  for  hymn 
and  prayer  books ;  also  occasionally  as  an  architectural  ornament. 


Fig.  332 — Sign  of  the  Gnostics.  Known  Fig.  333. — Thor's  Hammer,  or  Swas- 
to  the  Jews  as  David's  Shield.  Usual  tika  symbol.  A  symbol  of  polyandric 
form  on  left;  on  the  right,  an  alchemistic  union — one  woman  and  several  men. 
fortn.  See  this  sign  in  pubic  triangle  in  Fig. 

267. 

It  is  part  of  the  seal  of  the  theosophic  societies  and  is  fre- 
quently seen  as  part  of  the  mystic  signs  of  secret  societies.  It 
was  much  used  also  by  the  alchemists. 

The  symbol  also  occurred  in  ancient  or  pre-historic  Aztec 
ruins,  in  Yucatan  and  Central  America;  it  was  found,  for  in- 
stance, in  the  ruins  of  Uxmal,  in  Yucatan;  and  it  was  found  in 
Aztec  temples  in  Mexico. 

The  shape  of  an  ornament  that  is  quite  popular  with  us  at 
present  is  shown  in  Fig.  333,  on  the  left;  it  is  also  called  " Swas- 
tika" and  is  a  charm  to  conjure  good  luck. 

Like  the  sign  of  the  Gnostics  it  represents  sexual  union,  but 
of  the  polyandric  type.  It  was  used  by  the  ancient  Phoenicians 
and  other  Orientals,  and  was  called  by  them  the  "cross  of  the 
Four  Great  Gods."  It  is  based  on  the  peculiar  Asiatic  custom, 


524 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


still  prevalent  in  Thibet,  of  polyandry,  one  woman  having  sev- 
eral husbands.  It  represents,  figuratively,  four  male  organs 
serving  for  one  female  organ.  The  derivation,  more  coarsely 
represented,  is  also  shown  (Fig.  333). 

This  symbol  was  considered  in  Scandinavian  or  Norse  myth- 
ology to  represent  lightning,  and  was  called  Thor  's  Hammer ;  but 
it  also  had  a  phallic  significance,  for  with  it  Thor  was  supposed 
to  bless  or  consecrate  the  newly  married  couples. 

In  the  Eddas  it  is  related  how  the  god  Thor  lost  this  ham- 
mer at  one  time,  it  having  been  stolen  by  the  giant  Thrym;  the 
latter  refused  to  surrender  the  hammer  to  its  owner,  except  on 


Fig.  334.— An  Irish  cross;  some  were 
Pagan,  others  early  Christian,  but  all  were 
symbolic  of  polyandric  union. 


Fig.  335. — Hands  in  blessing:  First, 
male  trinity;  second,  Hindu  symbol 
through  which  worshippers  gaze  at  sa- 
cred objects;  third,  male  and  female 
symbols;  fourth  and  fifth,  sexual  union. 


the  condition  that  the  goddess  Freya  should  be  given  to  him  for 
a  wife.  Upon  this  Thor  disguised  himself  as  a  woman,  pretend- 
ing to  be  Freya,  thus  succeeding  in  meeting  Thrym;  he  then  slew 
the  giant  and  recovered  his  hammer. 

This  cross  was  used  in  its  realistic  form,  as  shown  in  the 
right-hand  figure,  both  in  heathen  and  in  medieval  Christian 
temples,  churches,  and  church  paraphernalia.  A  modified  form 
is  the  Maltese  cross,  which  dates  from  the  time  of  the  crusades;  it 
was  the  badge  of  the  Knights  of  Malta. 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  525 

The  Irish  round  towers  were  by  many  held  to  be  phallic 
monuments;  others  ascribed  them  to  early  Christian  origin. 
Probably  there  were  both  kinds  of  towers.  The  "brochs"  or 
round  towers  of  Scotland  appear  to  have  been  of  pre-Christian 
origin. 

The  Irish  pre-Christian  cross  was  a  modification  of  the 
Swastika  idea,  and  was  often  covered  with  erotic  carvings. 

Charms  of  goodwill,  or  of  blessing,  are  used  in  all  religions 
in  the  form  of  certain  gestures  of  the  hands  of  the  priests  while 
blessing  (Fig.  335).  The  upper  left-hand  figure  symbolizes  the 
male  trinity;  the  upper  right-hand  figure  an  East  Indian  door  of 


Fig.  3.36. — Adam   ami  Eve;    the   fall   and    expulsion   from   paradise,   by    Michelangelo, 
from  Sistine  Chapel,  Vatican,  Rome. 

life  through  which  worshippers  gaze  at  certain  sacred  objects  in 
the  temples;  the  lower  left-hand  figure  symbolizes  the  male  trin- 
ity, together  with  the  door  of  life,  or  yoni;  and  the  lower  middle 
and  right-hand  figures  show  the  lingam  and  yoni  in  union  as  in 
ancient  Rome. 

Sexual  union  was  often  realistically  represented,  even  in 
Christian  churches  in  the  middle  ages  in  France  and  England. 
Adam  and  Eve,  both  naked,  were  commonly  represented  in  me- 
dieval churches,  usually  one  on  either  side  of  the  main  entrance 
on  the  door  frame;  sometimes  together,  as  in  the  drawing  from 
the  ceiling  of  St.  Michael's  church  in  Hildesheim,  Germany  (Fig. 
120) ;  and  occasionally  as  in  sexual  embrace.  The  celebrated 


526  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

painting,  "The  Adoration  of  the  Lamb,"  by  Van  Eyck,  was  the 
central  panel  of  a  transportable  altar-piece  for  an  army  or  field 
altar;  on  the  two  side  panels  were  Adam  and  Eve,  realistically 
naked  and  unidealized,  as  was  usual  in  old  Dutch  art.  Both 
Adam  and  Eve  are  represented  naked  on  the  ceiling  of  the  Sis- 
tine  chapel.  Also,  on  the  wall  paintings  in  Basle,  known  as  the 
"Basle  Death-Dance." 

An  altar-statue  of  a  naked  Eve  is  still  extant  in  the  cathedral 
at  Schleswig,  Germany,  as  shown  in  Fig.  124. 

Such  was  the  nature  of  many  of  the  ikons  or  images,  that 
were  destroyed  by  the  iconoclasts  in  the  times  of  Cromwell;  the 


Fig.  337. — Pandora,  and  the  Greek  Pantheon.  The  deities  are  marked  by  sym- 
bols; Zeua  by  a  sceptre,  Juno  by  a  peacock,  Mercury  by  the  caduceus,  Ceres  by  ears 
of  wheat,  Diana  by  a  crescent  moon,  and  Venus  by  being  naked,  etc.  Pandora  was 
the  first  woman  and  her  box  symbolized  the  vulva. 

movement  was  similar  to,  but  more  violent  than  our  modern 
Comstock  crusade  or  W.  C.  T.  U.  agitation  for  the  suppression  of 
the  Nude  in  Art.  Whether  the  genitals  of  Adam  and  Eve,  in  the 
Hildesheim  church,  were  painted  out  during  this  crusade,  or 
whether  they  never  had  any,  I  do  not  know. 

Figures  representing  coition  are  sold  in  Mexico,  and  are  said 
to  be  used  for  the  instruction  in  the  mysteries  of  sex  of  young 
people  at  the  age  of  puberty.  However,  I  have  seen  some  that 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


527 


represented  unnatural,  or  at  least  unusual,  sexual  practices,  so 
that  possibly  these  little  figurines  are  merely  " erotica." 

Such  representations  were  already  in  use  on  this  continent 
by  the  ancient  mound  builders;  in  Fig.  149  is  shown  the  form  of 
a  stone  pipe  found  in  a  mound  in  Indiana.  Another  photograph 
belonging  to  the  St.  Louis  Academy  of  Science,  of  a  pipe  taken 
from  a  mound  in  Arkansas,  represents  unnatural  sexual  prac- 
tices. Erotic  pipes  are  still  carved  of  meerschaum  and  are  prized 
by  their  possessors;  it  seems  that  such  illustrations  have  always 
been  in  use  everywhere. 

Figure  304,  on  page  490,  shows  the  Egyptian  goddess 
Maut  or  Ma;  the  word  "Ma"  means  mother  in  practically  all 


Fig.  338. — Nefert-hotep  receives  life  from  Anukah.     Ancient  Egyptian  sculpture. 
Life  is  symbolized  by  the  ankh  or  crux  ansata. 

languages  of  the  world,  while  the  word  "Maut"  meant  "good 
mother."  The  goddess  holds  the  female  sceptre  and  the  "ankh," 
which  is  a  combination  of  the  tau-cross  with  the  door  of  life,  or, 
symbolically,  a  union  of  the  lingam  with  a  yoni,  signifying  sexual 
union,  and  therefore  having  the  significance  of  "life."  It  is  fre- 
quently, if  not  always,  carried  in  the  hands  of  figures  of  gods 
and  goddesses,  possibly  with  the  significance  of  immortality.  In 
the  Christian  church  this  symbol  was  known  as  the  crux  ansata, 
or  the  cross  with  a  handle. 

The  Symbol  is  androgynous,  combining  in  one  the  male  be- 
getting and  the  female  conceiving  powers ;  in  other  words,  it  sym- 


528  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

bolizes  the  essentially  androgynous  character  of  the  Almighty 
First  Cause,  the  Creative  Principle  or  Power,  the  Creator — Pro- 
creation— Life — God — as  already  explained. 

Here  is  represented  an  Egyptian  sculpture  showing  the  god- 
dess Anukah  bestowing  life  on  the  Pharaoh  Nefert-hotep  (Fig. 
338).  When  speaking  of  tree  or  grove  worship  (p.  413)  men- 
tion was  made  of  a  sculpture  of  an  Assyrian  grove,  and  a  descrip- 
tion of  it  was  given.  It  also  symbolized  sexual  union.  The 
wings  of  Babylonian  or  Assyrian  gods,  priests  and  bulls  are  per- 
petuated in  Christian  art  in  the  wings  of  our  angels. 


Fig.  339. — A  Hindu  sacred  place;  devotees  devote  their  lives  to  study  the  hidden  mean- 
ings of  every  feature  of  these  objects. 

In  India  there  are  many  sacred  places  with  innumerable 
phallic,  yonic  and  androgynous  symbols  or  figures;  the  most 
popular  of  these  is  the  lingam-in-yoni  (Arba)  not  necessarily 
always  to  be  considered  as  androgynous,  but  quite  frequently 
symbolizing  deities  cohabiting  with  their  saktis  or  wives — sexual 
union  (see  Figs.  339  and  340). 

Yet  in  the  main  the  following  idea  is  thus  shown:  "Praja- 
pati  is  the  Universal  Spiritual  Principle.  Everything  was  non- 
existent when  Brahma  (himself  still  non-existent)  determined 
to  create  the  universe.  He  created  the  waters  by  meditation,  and 
placed  in  them  a  fertile  seed  which  developed  into  a  golden  egg, 
from  which  he,  Brahma  himself,  was  then  born,  to  become  the 
Creator  of  all  living  beings." 

This  doctrine  seems  a  little  abstruse,  but  if  you  can  not  com- 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


529 


prehend  it,  contemplate  the  Christian  mystery  of  the  Immaculate 
Conception,  of  Jesus,  God,  begetting  himself,  for  Jesus  is  One 
with  the  Father  and  the  Holy  Ghost;  they  are  not  separate  indi- 
vidualities. The  Christian  faith,  as  well  as  the  Brahmanic,  has 
mysteries  which  reason  can  not  understand ;  they  must  be  blindly 
accepted  "on  faith." 

Sexual  union  was  symbolized  by  yonic  and  lingam  symbols 
joined  in  various  ways.  These  illustrations  are,  most  of  them, 
self-explanatory;  the  origin  of  the  Latin  cross  was  a  phallic  pil- 
lar with  a  yonic  ring  around  it,  which,  in  profile,  looks  like  a  cross. 

The  10  is  a  mystic  esoteric  sign;  it  means:  "Man  without 


Fig.  340. — Symbols  of  sexual  union; 
the  lingam-in-yoni  and  the  Arba  are  signs 
of  union ;  the  symbol  of  wisdom  is  a  male 
and  female  triangle  joined  by  the  serpent, 
or  passion. 


Fig.  341. — Symbols  of  sexual  union ; 
the  last  one  is  interpreted:  man  without 
woman  is  one,  woman  without  man  is  noth- 
ing, together  they  are  many  (ten). 


woman  is  one;  woman  without  man  is  nothing;  together  they  are 
ten,  or  many."     (Fig.  341.) 

In  modern  science  these  signs  do  not  mean  union,  but  only  the 
upper  symbol  counts ;  they  are  used  to  designate  sex  in  zoology  and 
botany  (Fig.  344).  The  Mars-sign  for  male  and  the  Venus-sign 
for  female  explain  themselves;  the  caduceus  of  Mercury  shows 
two  cobra  serpents  in  copulation  around  a  rod,  the  rod  being  a 
symbol  of  a  lingam,  hence  both  sexes  are  present,  and  this  is  the 
sign  for  hermaphrodite;  the  Saturn-sign  means  neuter,  because 


530 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


Saturn  cut  off  the  phallus  of  his  father  Uranus  with  a  sickle;  it 
represents  a  lingam  or  male  with  a  sickle. 

We  have  retained  other  phallic  ideas  in  our  every-day  cus- 
toms and  practices.  This  (Fig.  343)  is  from  a  painting  of  the 
marriage  of  the  virgin  by  Kaphael,  and  the  wedding  ring  and 
finger  signify  symbolically  the  yoni  and  the  lingam.  In  this  illus- 
tration note  the  tau-cross  apron  which  forms  part  of  the  regalia 
of  the  priest;  it  is  worn  over  the  phallus  which  it  symbolizes. 
This  symbolic  union  of  the  bride  and  bridegroom  before  the 


Fig.  342. — Jugudhatri,  Hindu  goddess 
of  love ;  the  finger  and  ring  symbols  of 
sexual  union. 


Fig.  343.— "The  Marriage  of  the  Vir- 
gin," by  Raphael;  the  finger  and  ring 
symbols  of  sexual  union. 


guests  is  merely  a  refined  method  of  showing  what  is  actually 
done  in  some  Polynesian  tribes,  namely,  that  the  newly-wedded 
pair  indulge  in  coition  in  the  presence  of  the  assembled  guests 
and  friends,  as  part  of  the  wedding  ceremony. 

In  the  painting  of  the  Marriage  of  the  Virgin,  a  young  man 
in  the  foreground  is  represented  as  breaking  a  rod;  the  rod  is  a 
symbol  of  a  lingam;  in  the  Prot-Evangelium  Jacobi  (see  page 
518)  it  is  stated  that  when  Mary  was  married  to  Joseph  a  youthful 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


531 


lover  was  so  disappointed  that  lie  emasculated  himself  and  be- 
came an  anchorite;  this  is  implied  by  his  "breaking  his  rod." 

Among  the  Romans,  the  bride  was  taken  to  the  temple  of 
Priapus,  either  before  the  ceremony  by  the  priestesses  alone,  or 
more  usually  after  the  ceremony,  accompanied  by  the  husband 
and  wedding  party,  where  she  had  connection  with  the  god,  to 
whom  she  thus  offered  up  her  virginity. 

The  position  of  the  wedding  ring  on  the  fourth  finger  is  thus 
explained:  The  wedding  ring  was  originally  put  on  the  bride's 
hand  in  the  following  manner  by  the  priest:  on  the  thumb,  with 
the  words  "In  the  name  of  God,  the  Father;"  on  the  index  finger 
with  the  words  "and  of  the  Son;"  on  the  middle  finger  with  the 


(5   THaU 

Q    Female 


HeTnmaphrocbU 

/in  Tooloqy ,  j  omen-in  ej 

NeuJterJ 
Neater 


Fig.  344. — These  symbols  are  used 
now  to  designate  the  sexes  in  zoology 
and  botany. 


Fig.  345. — In  the  upper  right-hand 
figure  Suben,  Egyptian  goddess  of  ma- 
ternity, places  a  ring  on  a  uas  sceptre 
(symbol  of  a  lingam). 


words  "and  of  the  Holy  Ghost;"  then,  finally,  on  the  fourth 
finger  with  the  word  "Amen,"  thus  mimicking  the  frictional 
back-and-forth  movements  of  coition. 

Figure  342  is  a  drawing  representing  Jugudhatri,  the  Hindu 
Goddess  of  Love;  note  the  ring  and  finger. 

In  Sanger's  History  of  Prostitution  we  learn  that  in  ancient 
Rome  the  prostitutes  solicited  passers-by  by  sitting  in  their  win- 
dows and  holding  up  their  hands  with  thumb  and  index  finger 
coming  together  at  the  tips  to  show  the  symbol  of  the  yoni,  a 
ring,  their  stock-in-trade ;  if  a  man  wished  to  accept  the  invitation 


532 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


he  held  up  his  finger,  the  sign  of  the  lingam,  and  the  woman  came 
to  the  door  and  admitted  him. 

The  vulture  was  the  symbol  of  the  Egyptian  goddess  Suben, 
the  goddess  of  maternity;  she  is  shown  here  (Fig.  345)  as  placing 
a  ring  on  the  lingam,  symbolized  by  the  uas  sceptre,  with  the 
meaning,  that  she  has  connection  with  the  god,  or  that  the  female 
power  presiding  over  maternity  requires  first,  a  sexual  union 
with  the  begetting  power. 

Here,  in  Fig.  346,  we  see  a  more  realistic  representation  of 
the  same  thing,  but  the  vulture  goddess  places  the  ring,  or  yoni, 
on  the  erect  lingam  of  the  god. 

Among  the  Romans  the  women  were  subordinate  to  their 
husbands  to  the  extent  that  the  latter  could  put  them  or  their 


Fig.  346. — Same  idea  as  the  last  figure,  but  more  realistic. 

children  to  death  if  they  so  chose  to  do ;  yet  they  were  not  slaves. 
They  were  not  allowed  opportunities  to  learn  to  read  and  write, 
however,  and  few  women  of  those  days  acquired  this  accomplish- 
ment unless  they  chose  to  become  lietaerae  or  public  women; 
these  were  women  who  were  free  to  do  as  they  pleased,  and  chose 
to  remain  single  and  learn  arts  or  science  and  to  mingle  with  the 
men,  but  they  were  not  prostitutes  by  any  means,  although  they 
often  were  "affinities"  of  some  man  or  other. 

The  wives  were  kept  in  more  or  less  privacy,  at  least  in 
earlier  times,  in  harem  fashion.  Yet  the  wives  had  much  au- 
thority in  the  home,  even  in  taking  part  in  the  management  of 
the  household  and  estate.  But  they  had  to  be  specially  authorized 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  533 

to  transact  business  for  the  household,  and  as  few  of  them  could 
read  and  write,  they  were  given  a  seal  ring,  the  impression  of 
which  was  recognized  as  authority  from  the  husband  to  attend  to 
certain  affairs  for  him. 

This  ring  was  given  to  the  wife  on  the  occasion  of  the  wed- 
ding and  was  called  a  wedding  ring ;  it  was  a  symbol  of  authority. 

In  some  Oriental  nations  in  ancient  times,  rings  were  worn 
by  men  and  women,  and  on  all  the  fingers  of  the  hand,  including 
the  thumb.  At  home,  where  women  generally  went  barefoot,  they 
also  wore  rings  on  their  toes.  The  finger-ring  had  a  hoop,  and  a 
bezel,  the  latter  a  flat  surface  on  which  a  figure  or  motto  may  be 
engraved  or  on  which  a  precious  stone  may  be  mounted. 

Used  as  a  symbol  of  wifely  authority  in  ancient  times,  the 
ring  became  merely  an  ornament  in  later  days,  or  sometimes  it 
was  worn  as  a  charm  or  mascot.  Thus  from  very  ancient  times 
emeralds  were  used  as  a  setting  for  various  reasons;  they  were 
charms  that  were  good  for  the  eyes ;  they  drove  away  evil  spirits ; 
they  assisted  women  in  confinement  and  child-birth;  they  pre- 
vented the  wearer  from  getting  drunk;  and  this  use  still  persists 
to  the  present  day  in  Oriental  countries,  where  they  are  highly 
regarded  as  talismans,  and  medical  virtues  are  ascribed  to  them. 

Gipsies,  and  the  Portuguese,  Sicilians,  etc.,  generally  wear 
ear-rings,  which  they  claim  keeps  them  from  having  eye  troubles. 

Among  most  Oriental  people  (Hebrews  and  Egyptians  ex- 
cepted)  both  sexes  wear  ear-rings  as  ornaments;  among  ancient 
Jews,  as  among  ourselves,  only  women  wore  them  in  this  man- 
ner. Ear-rings  were  also  restricted  exclusively  to  the  use  by 
women  among  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans;  the  ears  of  the 
Venus  de  Medici  are  pierced,  showing  that  she  originally  wore 
ear-rings  or  ear  pendants. 

In  Europe  thumb  rings  were  generally  worn  from  the  four- 
teenth to  the  seventeenth  century. 

In  the  middle  ages,  or  about  the  seventeenth  century,  wed- 
ding rings  had  mottoes  inscribed  on  them  and  were  then  called 
"posey  rings;"  the  husband  at  the  wedding  ceremony  would 
place  such  a  ring  on  the  bride's  finger,  or  the  officiating  priest 
did  so,  and  on  these  rings  were  inscriptions  like  this:  "Love  and 
obaye;"  "Fear  God  and  love  me,"  or  "M-ulier  viro  subjecta 
esto"  (The  woman  shall  be  subject  to  the  man). 

Also  from  very  ancient  times  rings  were  used  as  charms  to 


534 


SEX   AND    SEX   WOKSHIP 


"cramp  rings." 


cure  or  prevent  sickness;  they  were  then  called 
It  is  said  Solomon  placed  a  piece  of  Solomon's  Seal  root  in  the 
bezel,  to  prevent  epileptic  seizures,  but  in  more  recent  times  they 
owed  their  virtues  to  having  been  blessed  by  a  king  or  a  priest. 

The  pope  wears  the  apostolic  ring  of  St.  Peter  on  one  of  his 
toes,  when  he  gives  audience  to  pilgrims  to  Borne,  who  kneel  and 
kiss  his  foot,  or  the  ring  on  his  foot. 

The  use  of  the  ring  as  a  symbol  of  the  feminine  yoni  in  the 
manner  of  putting  it  on,  has  already  been  described. 


SERPENT  WORSHIP 

General  Considerations 

The  serpent  has  been  the    symbol   for    sexual   passion   for 
thousands  of  years;  when  it  is  represented  as  twining  around  a 


Fig.  347. — Marriage  of  Peleus  and  Thetis,  from  an  amphora  found  at  Rhodes. 

rod  or  pillar  it  means  a  lingam  erect  under  the  influence  of  sex- 
ual passion.  The  Caduceus  of  Mercury  and  the  Staff  of  Aescu- 
lapius have  this  significance.  The  Christian  bishop's  staff  was 
originally  a  staff  with  a  serpent  twined  around  it. 

This  illustration  (Fig.  347)  is  from  an  amphora  from 
Camirus,  Rhodes.  Peleus,  the  father  of  Achilles,  ruled  in  Phtia; 
the  gods,  noting  his  piety,  rewarded  him  with  a  wife  in  the  per- 
son of  the  beautiful  Nereid  or  water-nymph,  Thetis.  This  pres- 
entation is  here  shown,  and  the  serpent  which  bites  Peleus  as  he 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  535 

attempts  to  embrace  Thetis,  symbolizes  the  sexual  passion  he 
feels  for  her.  At  this  wedding  the  goddess  Eris  threw  a  golden 
apple  on  the  table,  which  bore  inscribed  on  it  the  motto :  "To  the 
fairest  of  the  fair."  Hera,  Aphrodite  and  Athena  claimed  it,  so 
Zeus  appointed  Paris  to  be  judge,  and  he  awarded  it  to  Aphrodite, 
probably  because  she  was  naked  and  he  had  better  opportunity  to 
judge  how  fair  she  was.  This  apple  is  often  called  the  "apple  of 
discord"  (Fig.  348). 

The  staff  of  Aesculapius  is  also  called  the  staff  of  life;  it 
symbolizes  virility,  vigor,  health — a  lingam  erect  under  the  influ- 
ence of  sexual  passion  symbolized  by  the  snake  (Fig.  349). 


Fig.  348. — "Judgment  of  Paris,"  an  antique  mural  painting,  Pompeii. 

Hygeia  (Fig.  350),  the  daughter  of  Aesculapius,  fed  a  snake 
with  milk  and  made  the  prognosis  for  the  patients  who  came  to 
the  temple  to  consult  the  oracles,  from  the  manner  in  which  the 
snake  partook  of  the  offered  food.  In  reality,  there  were  large 
numbers  of  temple  attendants,  or  female  temple  slaves  ("daugh- 
ters of  the  god"),  whose  duty  it  was  to  tempt  the  patients  to 
sexual  congress,  and  if  the  man  entered  with  vigor  on  the  sexual 
encounter  they  reasoned  that  he  was  not  seriously  sick  and  that 
he  would  recover;  whereas,  if  he  remained  apathetic  and  unre- 
sponsive, the  prognosis  was  less  favorable.  Once  every  year,  on 


536 


SEX   AND   SEX   WOKSHIP 


a  certain  day,  a  naked  virgin  took  food  into  the  place  where  the 
temple  snakes  were  kept  in  the  groves  of  Aesculapius.  If  the 
serpents  received  her  kindly  and  took  the  food  readily,  it  proph- 
esied a  fruitful  and  a  prosperous  year ;  but  if  they  looked  at  the 
temple  attendant  more  or  less  ferociously  and  refused  the  food 
it  was  an  omen  of  a  bad  and  unpropitious  year. 

The  Aesculapius'  Snake  is  known  in  zoology  as  Coluber  Aes- 
culapii;  it  is  a  native  of  Italy  and  grows  to  be  about  5  feet  long ; 
it  was  well  adapted  to  its  use  in  the  temple  because  it  is  readily 
tamed  and  perfectly  harmless. 

The  serpent  was  an  object  of  worship    among    the    ancient 


Fig.  349. — Aesculapius,  the  god  of  Medi- 
cine. 


Fig.  350. — Hygeia,    the   daughter   of 
Aesculapius. 


Egyptians;  Kneph,  the  serpent  god,  was  a  good  demon.  His 
images  in  the  temples  were  plentiful.  The  serpent  was  the  sym- 
bol also  of  the  unborn  and  immortal. 

A  snake  with  its  tail  in  its  mouth,  thus  forming  a  ring  or 
hoop,  was  a  symbol  of  eternity,  and  is  used  in  this  sense  in  the 
seal  of  the  Theosophic  Society. 

While  sojourning  in  the  wilderness  the  Jews  disobeyed  God 
and  he  sent  a  plague  of  venomous  snakes;  to  cure  those  that 
were  bitten  a  serpent  image  was  erected,  which  was  done  by  com- 
mand of  God;  but  in  this  case  the  serpent  was  not  for  worship, 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


537 


but  merely  to  test  the  faith  of  the  people  in  a  promise  of  God 
(see  p.  351). 

The  serpent  was  also  an  object  of  worship  among  the  Hin- 
dus. Snake  charmers  are  plentiful  in  India,  and  the  snake  they 
usually  have  is  the  cobra,  one  of  the  most  venomous  snakes  in 
the  world;  but  the  charmers  draw  out  the  poison  fangs,  so  that 


Fig.  351. — Egyptian  serpent  deities;  temple  sculptures. 


\  '"isrygzm     ._::. J 

Fig.  352.— The  Serpent  Mound  in  Ohio,  total  length  1,000  feet  extended. 

they  are  in  no  danger  from  the  animal,  but  the  public  does  not 
know  this. 

The  mound  builders  of  North  America  also  worshipped  the 
snake;  the  Serpent  Mound  in  Ohio  (Fig.  352)  is  now  a  national 
reservation,  in  order  to  preserve  this  remarkable  monument  of 
antiquity.  The  mound  is  situated  on  a  bluff  in  the  angle  of  two 


538 


SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 


streams  meeting  and  joining  to  form  a  larger  stream,  the  forked 
waters  having  the  same  significance  as  the  divining  rod  already 
mentioned.  "We  see  here  the  male  triangle  head,  the  feminine 
circle,  the  body  of  the  snake  symbolizing  sexual  passion. 

Figure  295  is  an  ancient  representation  of  an  Aztec  serpent 
worship  in  the  ruins  of  a  Yucatan  temple.  The  human  figures 
both  show  their  yoni  and  protrude  their  tongues,  the  significance 
of  which  gesture  we  know. 

The  Zunis  in  New  Mexico  worship  the  serpent  god  Kolo- 
wissi,  or  "God  of  the  Plumed  Serpent,"  a  rattlesnake,  and  hold 
an  annual  snake-dance  in  his  honor. 

The  negroes  of  the  West  Indies  and  South  America  practice 
voodoo  worship,  and  a  living  baby  is  sometimes  offered  during 
their  nocturnal  rites  to  their  deity — a  boa  constrictor.  Voodoo- 
ism  is  a  North  African  religious  worship  of  an  all-powerful  and 


Fig.   353. — The   Aztec  god   Kolowissi — a    rattlesnake.     Note  the   solar   disc  and   the 
crescent  moon  and  compare  with  Fig.  361. 

supernatural  being,  the  non-poisonous  serpent  on  whom  depend 
all  the  happenings  occurring  in  the  world;  the  worship  is  accom- 
panied by  magic  mysteries  and  cannibalistic  feasts. 

The  Gnostics,  a  peculiar  sect  which  thrived  shortly  before 
Christianity  was  introduced  and  during  the  first  one  or  two  cen- 
turies of  our  era,  considered  the  snake  to  be  a  symbol  of  intellect, 
because  the  serpent  in  paradise  had  taught  man  knowledge;  but 
we  must  not  forget  that  "knowledge"  had  a  peculiar  meaning  in 
the  Old  Testament,  signifying  carnal  knowledge  or  congress  with 
one  of  the  other  sex,  used  of  both  men  and  women. 

Gen.  xxiv,  16:  Speaking  of  Eebekah — "and  the  damsel  was 
very  fair  to  look  upon,  a  virgin;  neither  had  any  man  known 
her;"  or 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP 


539 


Fig.  354.— " Temptation  of  Adam  and  Eve,"  from  a  copperplate  of  1714  A.D. 


Fig.  355.— "Adam,  Eve  and  the  Serpent,"  by  Boeder. 


540 


SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 


Num.  xxxi,  17 :  *  *  *  "  Kill  every  woman  that  hath  known 
man  by  lying  with  him." 

The  legend  of  St.  Patrick  driving  out  the  serpents  from  Ire- 
land refers  to  his  putting  an  end  to  serpent  worship  which  was 
practiced  by  the  druids  of  Great  Britain.  The  greatest  charm 
among  the  druids  was  the  angumeum,  or  ''Serpents'  egg,"  said 
to  have  been  formed  from  the  froth  out  of  the  mouths  and  the 
sweat  of  a  bunch  of  snakes;  Pliny  tells  us  that  the  test  of  its 
genuineness  wras  that  it  would  swim  against  the  current,  even  if 
enclosed  in  a  gold  case,  and  this  must  be  true,  as  Pliny  tells  us  he 
saw  such  an  egg  do  this. 

The  serpent  in  Paradise  (Figs.  354  and  355)  and  the  tree  of 


Fig.  356. — Horus  destroying  the  Great 
Serpent  Apap,  Egyptian ;  after  Rawlinson. 


Fig.  357. — Hindu  hermaphrodite  deity 
Ardanari-Iswari,  serpents  as  symbols  of 
sexual  passion. 


the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil  are  generally  supposed  to  refer  to 
sexual  passion,  as  is  expressed  by  Milton  in  Paradise  Lost: 

"*    *     *    but  that  false  fruit 
Far  other  operation  first  displayed, 
Carnal  desire  inflaming;  he  on  Eve 
Began  to  cast  lascivious  eyes,  she  to  him 
As  wantonly  repaid;  in  lust  they  burn 

Oh,  how  unlike 
To  that  first  naked  glory!" 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  541 

The  Mohammedans  have  a  feast  on  the  tenth  day  of  Mohar- 
ran,  called  Tom  Ashoora;  it  is  an  anniversary  celebration  of  the 
first  meeting  of  Adam  and  Eve  after  they  had  been  driven  out  of 
Paradise. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  trace  the  association  of  the  serpent 
with  the  principle  of  evil,  or  of  the  devil.  "Apap"  (Fig.  356) 
was  the  Egyptian  origin  of  evil,  and  was  represented  as  a  serpent. 
Having  inspired  Seth  to  murder  Osiris,  Horus,  the  son  of  Osiris, 
punishes  Apap  by  crushing  his  head.  From  this  old  Egyptian 
myth  Moses,  who  had  been  brought  up  by  Pharaoh's  daughter  in 
all  the  learning  of  the  Egyptians,  borrowed  the  expression  in  the 
Bible  (Gen.  iii,  15)  where  God  says  to  the  serpent,  "I  will  put 
enmity  between  thee  and  the  woman  and  between  thy  seed  and 
her  seed:  it  shall  bruise  thy  head  and  thou  shalt  bruise  his  heel." 

The  serpent  has  been  associated  for  ages  with  the  idea  of 
evil,  and  the  dread  of  the  snake  is  almost  universal.  The  devil 
is  worshipped  by  some  people  on  the  principle  that  it  is  better 
policy  to  propitiate  an  evil  spirit  than  to  worship  a  benevolent  one. 

In  Persia  Ahriman  and  Dew  (Persian  deities)  were  spirits 
of  evil,  and  were  supposed  to  be  poisonous  serpents. 

This  is  a  Hindu  attempt  to  express  in  a  design  the  following, 
from  the  Purana,  a  sacred  Brahmanic  book:  "The  Supreme  Spirit 
in  the  act  of  creation,  became  two-fold;  the  right  side  was  male  (in- 
dicated by  the  tau  cross),  the  left  was  Prakriti  (female,  indicated 
by  the  sign  of  the  yoni).  She  is  Maia,  eternal  and  imperishable." 

Again: — "The  divine  cause  of  creation  experienced  no  bliss, 
being  isolated — alone.  He  ardently  desired  a  companion ;  and  im- 
mediately the  desire  was  gratified.  He  caused  his  body  to  divide 
and  become  male  and  female.  They  united  and  human  beings  were 
thus  made"  (Fig.  357). 

In  this  figure  the  serpents  are  symbolic  of  the  passion  Ar- 
danari-Iswari  experiences ;  in  some  cases  the  right  side  is  provided 
with  a  realistic  penis,  and  the  left  side  with  a  realistic  vulva,  in- 
stead of  the  symbolic  figures  in  this  illustration.  See  also  p.  139 
where  a  similar  theory  in  regard  to  the  God  of  the  Bible,  Jehovah, 
is  considered. 

Philo,  a  Jewish  philosopher  contemporaneous  with  Jesus,  said 
that  Adam  was  a  hermaphrodite  being;  "God  separated  Adam 
into  two  parts,  one  male,  the  other  female,  Eve,  taken  from  his 
side." 


542 

Figure  358  is  a  copy  of  Michelangelo's  "Creation  of  Eve" 
from  the  ceiling  of  the  Sistine  chapel  in  the  Vatican  at  Rome. 
Philo  added,  that  the  longing  for  reunion  which  love  inspired  in 
the  divided  halves  of  the  originally  bisexual  man  is  the  source  of 
the  sensual  pleasure,  symbolized  by  the  serpent,  which  is  in  turn 
the  beginning  of  all  transgressions. 

The  early  Christian  church-fathers  claimed  that  God  made  a 
great  mistake  when  he  created  "Adam"  male  and  female. 

Justin,  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  Augustine  and  others  regretted 
that  Adam  yielded  to  his  passionate  desire  for  Eve,  and  held  that 
if  Adam  had  abstained  from  sexual  pleasure  with  Eve  he  would 
have  effectually  rebuked  God  and  would  have  compelled  God  to 
invent  some  harmless  mode  of  reproduction  that  would  not  have 


r 


Fig.  358. — ' '  Creation  of  Eve, ' '  by  Michelangelo,  from  Sistine  Chapel,  Vatican,  Rome, 

required  the  co-operation  of  the  sexes,  and  thus  the  world  would 
have  been  peopled  with  passionless  beings.  Through  the  influ- 
ence of  these  early  teachers  this  became  a  general  belief  among 
the  early  Christians,  and  it  accounts  for  their  antagonism  to 
everything  sexual,  which  persists  among  many  church  members 
to  this  day. 

We  read  that  God  forbade  Adam  and  Eve  to  eat  of  the  fruit 
of  the  tree  of  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  but  the  serpent  came 
and  tempted  Eve,  saying:  "In  the  day  ye  eat  thereof,  then  shall 
your  eyes  be  opened,  and  ye  shall  be  as  gods,  knowing  good  and 
evil.  And  when  the  woman  saw  that  the  tree  was  good  for  food — 
she  took  of  the  fruit  thereof  and  did  eat;  and  gave  also  to  her 
husband  and  he  did  eat"  (Gen.  iii,  5,  6). 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  543 

Philo  explains  this  that  Eve  represents  the  sensual  or  percep- 
tive part  of  man's  nature — the  senses;  Adam,  the  reason.  The 
serpent  did  not  venture  to  attack  Adam,  or  reason,  directly;  the 
senses  yield  to  pleasure  and  in  turn  enslave  reason  and  destroy 
immortal  virtue. 

A  cynic  once  said  that  Eve  was  called  "woman"  because  she 
brought  "woe  to  man;"  but  Eve  merely  tempts  man  passively, 
by  being  beautiful ;  man  tempts  woman  actively,  by  being  passion- 
ate; and  man  has  brought  a  thousandfold  more  woe  to  woman 
than  woman  ever  brought  to  man.  Kuskin  says,  that  for  this 
reason,  from  time  immemorial  the  serpent  has  been  represented 
with  the  head  of  a  man  (see  Fig.  95). 

Old  authors  called  the  fruit  of  Musa  paradisiaca,  a  variety 
of  plantain  or  banana,  "Adam's  apple,"  believing  that  this  was 
the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  possibly  on 
account  of  the  resemblance  of  this  fruit  to  a  lingam.  Other  au- 
thors believe  that  the  fruit  of  Citrus  medico,  was  the  forbidden 
fruit;  if  this  view  is  correct,  then  Eve  handed  Adam  a  lemon  in 
more  senses  than  one. 

While  probably  nine  out  of  ten  believe  that  Eve  gave  Adam 
an  apple  to  eat,  this  is  a  popular  mistake;  the  name  of  the  fruit 
is  not  mentioned  in  the  Bible,  but  the  apple  was  unknown  in 
Asia  Minor,  the  supposed  location  of  paradise. 

In  the  Pliysiologus,  a  collection  of  early  Christian  allegories, 
it  is  stated  that  a  serpent  flees  from  a  man  who  is  naked.  This 
probably  means  that  habitual  nudity  does  away  with  the  many 
temptations  to  sexual  passion  which  are  characteristic  of  clothed 
nations — in  other  words,  that  nudity,  habitually  seen,  does  away 
with  prurient  desires. 

An  analogous  experience  is  the  following:  Lola  Montez  said: 
' '  Show  a  man  but  an  inch  of  white  stocking  above  your  shoe  and 
you  can  lead  him  whither  you  will."  How  times  have  changed! 
A  young  woman  that  does  not  show  six  or  eight  inches  of  stock- 
ing over  her  shoes  is  now  looked  on  as  a  prude,  and  it  is  quite 
common  to  see  the  legs  of  women  up  to  the  bend  of  the  knee,  as 
they  enter  street  cars ;  yet  the  men  get  less  excited  now  over  see- 
ing a  woman's  leg  than  they  did  when  it  was  but  seldom  that  they 
caught  a  glimpse  of  an  inch  or  two  of  it. 

The  Kirghiz  and  other  Mongol  tribes  worship  Shaitan,  the 
Devil  or  Bad  Spirit.  Among  the  Turks  he  is  called  Erlik;  he  is 


544  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

considered  to  be  the  king  of  the  lower  world.  The  Mongols  ap- 
pear to  be  the  same  stock  as  the  Aztecs  or  Mexicans,  and  probably 
peopled  America  in  very  early  times;  they  extended  from  Asia 
Minor  to  Southeastern  Asia  or  Cambodia,  throughout  all  of  which 
territory,  as  well  as  Mexico,  serpent  worship  extended.  Cambo- 
dia contains  some  great  temples  which  are  generally  regarded  as 
monuments  of  serpent  worship.  Isolated  islands  in  the  Pacific 
also  had  serpent  worship;  for  instance,  the  Fijians,  now  almost 
all  Christians,  formerly  believed  in  Ndengi,  their  chief  god,  who 
was  a  serpent,  but  he  did  not  bother  himself  about  the  world  or 
its  inhabitants. 


WORSHIP  OF  THE  HEAVENLY  BODIES 

The  worship  of  the  sexual  organs  or  of  the  sexual  powers, 
was  a  low  and  rather  unrefined  method  of  worship;  that  it  was 
practiced  innocently,  and  without  thought  of  doing  something  im- 
proper, does  not  make  it,  as  some  authors  claim,  a  divine  theory, 
nor  was  the  indulging  in  coition  in  the  temples  a  divine  act,  al- 
though it  was  a  perfectly  proper  physiological  act  in  its  proper 
time  and  place.  Primitive  man,  when  this  worship  prevailed,  was 
but  little  above  the  animal,  like  a  bull  or  a  dog,  who  still  "inno- 
cently" and  "without  any  idea  of  impropriety"  mates  with  a  cow, 
or  a  bitch,  as  the  case  may  be.  But  that  does  not  make  the  act 
of  the  bull  or  the  dog  a  * '  divine  act. ' ' 

As  man  advanced  in  mental  development,  the  impropriety  or 
indelicacy  of  phallic  worship  and  its  attendant  ceremonies  be- 
came clearer  to  him,  and  while  his  sexual  nature  was  not  rendered 
base  or  improper,  it  became  more  and  more  a  private  matter,  and 
instead  of  displaying  the  phallus  and  yoni  in  the  temples  they 
came  to  be  considered  as  "privates"  or  "private  parts;"  their 
functions  also  came  to  be  considered  "private." 

Clemens  Alexandrinus  said,  that  the  worship  of  the  heavenly 
bodies  was  given  to  man  at  an  early  stage,  in  order  that  his  mind 
might  be  diverted  from  the  contemplation  of  grosser  things  to 
that  of  these  sublime  things,  and  through  them  ultimately  to 
the  worship  of  the  Creator;  his  idea  was,  that  the  knowledge  of 
God  was  a  result  of  a  gradual  evolution  of  ideas,  in  a  perfectly 
natural  way,  beginning  with  a  worship  of  parents  or  of  sex,  then 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  545 

of  the  heavenly  bodies,  then  of  the  gods,  and  finally  of  the  Creator 
or  the  One  God,  the  One  Great  Cause  of  all  Things. 

The  observation  of  the  stars  and  planets  was  naturally  un- 
dertaken by  people  who  were  awake  in  the  night  time,  and  not  by 
predatory  people  who  lived  by  the  chase — the  nomadic  tribes  who 
guarded  their  flocks  and  herds  at  night.  Ilesiod  and  Homer  were 
shepherds  and  while  contemplating  the  heavens  they  imagined 
those  grand  poems  which  developed  into  the  Bible  of  the  Greeks, 
and  later  on  became  the  basis  of  one  of  the  most  joyous  and  beau- 
tiful of  religions.  The  ancients  conceived  the  universe  as  having 
the  earth  in  the  center,  with  the  planets  circling  about  it;  they 
knew  seven  "planets"-—  Moon,  Mercury,  Venus,  Sun,  Mars,  Ju- 
piter and  Saturn;  these  were  worshipped  as  the  "Seven  Great 
Gods"  and  from  them  came  the  sacredness  of  the  numeral  seven; 
(see  Josh.  ch.  vi)  the  Jews  marched  around  the  walls  of  Jericho 
for  seven  days,  on  the  seventh  day  seven  times,  when  the  walls  fell 
down.  The  Mohammedan  pilgrims  to  Mecca  make  a  seven-fold 
circuit  around  the  Kaba,  a  circular  building  of  rude  stones,  which 
was  probably  an  old  Pagan  temple  dating  prior  to  Mohammed;  it 
has  been  destroyed  and  rebuilt  several  times,  and  is  considered 
very  sacred  because  it  contains  the  "black  stone"  (meteoric) 
which  the  pilgrims  kiss.  This  stone  is  very  ancient  and  dates  back 
to  primitive  times  when  stones  were  worshipped,  but  the  Moham- 
medans say  that  it  was  given  to  Abraham  by  the  angel  Gabriel, 
the  same  angel  that  dictated  the  Koran  to  Mohammed. 

Hesiod,  especially,  let  his  mind  dwell  largely  on  the  mysteries 
of  sex,  and  his  poem  is  practically  a  sexual  genealogy  of  all  di- 
vinities; it  reminds  of  a  similar  tendency  in  the  Bible  of  the 
Jews — '  *  Abraham  begat  Isaac ;  and  Isaac  begat  Jacob ;  and  Jacob 
begat  Judas  and  his  brethren ;  and  Judas  begat  Phares,  and  Zara 
of  Tamar;  and  Phares  begat  Esrom;  and — begat — begat — etc." 
Matth.  i.  So  Hesiod  said:  "And  Thia,  overcome  in  the  embrace 
of  Hyperion,  brought  forth  the  great  sun,  and  bright  moon,  and 
morn  *  *  *;"etc. 

We  have  already  learned  that  primitive  man  personified  all 
things  and  imagined  them  endowed  with  parts  and  functions  and 
desires  similar  to  his  own;  he  must  have  observed,  when  finally 
his  attention  was  attracted  to  speculate  about  the  sun,  that  it 
varied  in  its  heat  and  light  according  to  the  seasons ;  in  the  spring 
it  came  farther  and  farther  north,  it  rose  earlier  and  set  later, 


546  SEX   ASTD    SEX   WORSHIP 

and  it  spent  more  time  attending  to  its  function,  of  giving  light 
and  heat  and  life  to  earth,  fertilizing  it  and  causing  growth,  pro- 
duction, increase  in  crops  and  flocks,  during  the  summer  than  in 
winter,  when  it  rose  later  and  set  earlier  and  "  descended  to  the 
underworld"  for  a  greater  proportion  of  the  day,  causing  a  de- 
cline of  increase,  or  the  total  cessation  of  growth  and  of  the  yields 
of  the  fields  in  winter. 

When  we  remember  the  fundamental  feature  in  the  philosophy 
of  early  people  to  ascribe  life,  or  the  ability  to  give  life,  to  the 
male  alone,  it  can  not  be  wondered  at  that  the  sun  was  imagined 
to  be  a  powerful  male  demiurge,  and  that  the  active  creative  func- 
tions were  attributed  to  him;  while  the  part  played  by  the  earth 
(feminine  nature)  was  the  passive  or  purely  receptive  or  conceiv- 
ing power  attributed  to  the  woman.  So  it  was  but  natural  that 
the  sun  became  a  male  deity. 

Many  nations  worshipped  the  sun  either  direct,  as  now  among 
the  Parsees  of  Persia  and  India,  or  indirectly,  as  the  symbol  for 
other  deities  which  controlled  or  guided  it  in  its  course,  as  was 
the  case,  for  instance,  among  the  ancient  Quiches  who  called  the 
solar  deity  the  "Protector  of  the  Sun." 

The  sun  was  male ;  the  moon  was  smaller,  weaker,  and  there- 
fore inferior;  naturally  it  was  considered  female. 

The  sun  was  Osiris  in  ancient  Egypt;  Apollo  in  Greece  and 
Rome;  Baldor  among  Teutons  and  Norsemen;  etc. 

Not  all  people,  however,  philosophized  alike;  and  there  were 
reasons  for  differences  of  opinion  as  to  the  sex  of  the  sun  and 
moon.  Chemistry,  of  course,  was  undreamed  of,  and  the  ancients 
could  not  know  that  the  sun  favored  the  assimilation  of  food  by 
plants  in  the  daytime,  while  this  food  was  elaborated  into  new 
cell-tissue  in  the  dark  of  night,  over  which  the  moon  presided. 
Mark  the  point  to  which  the  tip  of  a  vine  (morning-glory  or  moon- 
flower  vine)  reaches  on  its  string  in  the  morning  and  again  in  the 
evening ;  and  do  this  for  a  few  days ;  it  will  be  noticed  that  there 
is  comparatively  little  growth  in  the  daytime  but  many  inches  of 
growth  during  the  night.  Now  if  this  was  noticed  in  early  times 
the  growth  wTould  very  likely  have  been  ascribed  to  the  moon,  and 
in  consonance  with  their  philosophies,  the  moon  would  be  the  demi- 
urge, or  the  creator,  and  would  be  male.  In  the  Assyrian  poem  of 
Ishtar's  trip  to  the  underworld  (p.  440)  we  find  that  the  Assyrians 
and  Babylonians  worshipped  the  moon  as  a  male  deity.  The  same 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  547 

was  true  of  other  nations.  The  Teutons  called  the  sun  female 
and  the  moon  male;  and  the  Germans  still  do  so:  "Die  Sonne," 
"Der  Mond."  But  the  more  apparent  effect  of  the  sun  prepon- 
derated and  most  nations  considered  it  a  procreative  male.  David 
spoke  of  the  rising  sun  as  a  "bridegroom  coming  out  of  his 
chamber"  (Ps.  xix,  5). 

Among  the  Greeks,  day  and  heaven  (atmosphere)  were  con- 
sidered masculine  and  the  night  female;  naturally,  the  heavenly 
bodies  ruling  day  and  night  ("And  God  made  two  great  lights; 
the  greater  to  rule  the  day,  and  the  lesser  light  to  rule  the  night" 
Gen.  i,  16 )i  shared  the  nature  of  day  and  night,  and  agreed  in  sex. 
In  those  early  days,  gender,  or  purely  grammatical  sex,  was  un- 
known, and  the  sex  was  supposed  to  be  a  real  sex. 

The  Rig-Vedas  imply  that  the  worship  was  a  nature-worship 
connected  with  the  return  or  rotation  of  the  seasons ;  it  was  there- 
fore based  on  the  motions  of  the  sun. 

The  ancient  Hindus  and  Parsees,  as  well  as  the  Phoenicians, 
based  their  religious  festivals  on  the  seasons,  or  on  sun-worship, 
as  we  also  still  do  with  our  Easter  festival. 

The  Phrygian  festivals  were  based  on  the  idea  that  the  sun 
was  asleep  in  winter  and  awake  in  the  summer;  this  was  the  pre- 
vailing idea  in  the  folklore  extending  around  the  world.  The  Teu- 
tonic Ostern,  the  Norse  Yule,  our  Easter,  were  all  connected  with 
the  sunworship,  the  festivals  being  usually  about  the  time  of 
the  equinoxes. 

In  Syria,  also,  the  deity  Hadad  was  supposed  to  be  the  "king 
of  the  gods,"  the  sun. 

Strange  to  say,  the  festivals  on  the  western  continent  were 
based  on  the  same  ideas,  and,  as  already  explained,  were  probably 
based  on  the  same  folklore  myths.  The  Mexicans  had  an  elab- 
orate system  of  festivals  derived  from  the  calendar  or  movements 
of  the  sun ;  Tonatiuh  and  Metztli  were  Mexican  nature  gods,  sun 
and  moon,  man  and  wife. 

The  Quiches  (Central  America)  had  three  great  gods,  the 
Protector  of  the  Sun,  or  God  of  the  Sun,  who  was  called  the  "Cre- 
ator of  Light,"  a  goddess  of  the  Moon,  and  Hurakan  (hurricane), 
the  storm-god.  The  moon-goddess  carried  a  shell  in  her  hand. 

The  Incas  were  the  rulers  of  ancient  Peru ;  they  were  believed 
to  be  descended  from  the  sun  deity.  They  and  their  people  wor- 
shipped the  sun,  moon,  and  evening  star,  the  Spirit  of  Thunder, 


548  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

and  the  rainbow;  they  had  four  solar  festivals  and  another  at 
each  new  moon;  unlike  the  Mexicans  with  their  thousands  of 
human  sacrifices  annually,  the  Peruvians  very  rarely  sacrificed 
human  victims,  but  on  the  rare  and  important  occasions  when  they 
made  such  a  sacrifice,  the  rarest  and  choicest  obtainable  victim, 
the  most  beautiful  maiden  who  could  be  found,  was  taken  as  an 
offering  to  the  sun. 

The  ''virgins  of  the  sun"  were  temple  attendants  who  were 
consecrated  to  perpetual  chastity,  except  that  the  Inca  himself 
could  take  any  one  of  them  for  his  own  use;  in  other  words,  they 
were  the  concubines  of  the  Inca.  Every  now  and  then,  their  num- 
ber was  reduced  by  sending  some  home,  where  they  were  received 
with  great  honor  because  they  had  received  the  attentions  and 
caresses  of  their  ruler,  who  was  himself  regarded  as  a  god. 

The  sun  and  moon  were  thought  to  be  living  beings,  by  many 
nations ;  sexually,  as  already  stated,  the  sun  was  the  male  and  the 
moon  the  female,  man  and  wife,  although  the  sex  was  sometimes 
reversed,  as  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  Andaman  Islands,  who 
consider  the  sun  to  be  the  wife  of  the  moon.  This  looks  logical, 
for  the  wife  is  usually  the  more  beautiful  of  the  couple. 

The  Eskimos  say  that  the  moon  is  a  girl  whose  face  was  soiled 
by  the  sun  throwing  ashes  on  her;  the  Khasias  reverse  this — the 
sun  is  a  girl  who  soils  the  face  of  her  male  companion,  the  moon. 

The  folklore  and  fairy  tales  of  all  lands  make  mention  of  the 
"man  in  the  moon;"  if  one  looks  at  the  bright  full  moon,  it  is 
not  difficult  to  make  out  a  profile  face  of  a  pretty  girl,  like  the 
head  on  a  silver  dollar,  facing  to  the  left — "the  girl  in  the 
moon" — and  it  does  not  take  much  imagination  to  see  the  face  of 
a  man  kissing  the  girl  on  her  right  cheek. 

The  Hindus  have  a  queer  story  about  the  moon;  she  is  the 
bride  of  the  sun,  but  was  faithless,  so  her  husband  cut  her  up 
into  pieces  and  usually  allows  only  a  part  of  her  to  go  out  or 
appear  in  public,  but  occasionally  he  lets  her  appear  in  her  full 
beauty. 

Among  the  Greeks,  in  early  times,  the  sun  was  considered 
a  male  deity,  but  later  the  sun-worship  was  somewhat  different. 
Anaxagoras  (500  B.C.),  of  whom  we  have  read  before,  taught  that 
the  sun  was  not  a  deity  but  a  mass  of  fiery  metal,  larger  than  the 
Peloponnesus;  this  is  a  peninsula  of  Greece,  comprising  several 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  549 

provinces,  and  is  about  2°  of  latitude   (or  about  120  miles)   in 
length  and  a  little  less  wide. 

But  some  ancient  ideas  were  rather  close  to  the  truth;  Eras- 
tothenes  (born  276  B.C.)  calculated  that  the  earth  was  round  and 
28,700  miles  in  circumference  (of  course  he  stated  the  distance  in 
the  equivalent  number  of  stadia,  the  units  then  in  use).  This  is 
certainly  a  wonderfully  accurate  result  for  so  early  a  date. 

In  the  Greek  myths  the  sun  became  a  fiery  chariot*  drawn 
by  horses  about  the  earth  once  every  day ;  the  horses  were  guided 
by  Apollo,  the  god  of  the  sun.  The  chariot  was  sometimes  said 
to  be  preceded  by  the  Charites  or  Graces  (Dawn),  or  by  the 
Muses. 

Apollo  was  the  son  of  Latona  (Leto)  and  Zeus  (Jupiter) ; 
his  twin  sister  Diana  (or  Artemis)  was  the  goddess  of  the  moon. 
Apollo  had  a  son  by  the  ocean  nymph  Clymene,  Phaeton  by  name. 
Phaeton  begged  his  father  to  let  him  drive  the  sun  chariot  around 
the  world,  but  he  lost  control  of  the  horses  who  ran  away,  and 
driving  too  near  the  earth,  he  scorched  it ;  mountains  \vere  set  on 
fire,  the  rivers  and  the  seas  dried  up,  Lybia  became  a  desert,  and 
the  Ethiopians  were  blackened  by  the  heat.  Then  to  save  the 
earth  from  destruction,  Zeus  hurled  a  thunderbolt  at  Phaeton  and 
killed  him  (Fig.  359). 

Anaximander  taught  that  "the  heavenly  bodies  are  wheels 
of  fire  separated  off  from  the  fire  which  encircles  the  world,  and 
surrounded  by  air,  and  they  have  breathing  holes,  certain  pipe- 
like  openings  through  which  the  heavenly  bodies  are  seen.  For 
this  reason,  too,  when  the  breathing-holes  are  stopped,  eclipses 
occur.  And  the  moon  appears  now  to  wax  and  now  to  wane  be- 
cause of  the  stopping  and  opening  of  the  outlets." 

The  story  of  Jason,  dating  back  before  the  siege  of  Troy,  is 
explained  as  a  sun-myth.  The  sun  was  a  ram  with  a  golden  fleece, 
who  flies  through  the  air  from  the  land  of  the  rising  to  the  land 
of  the  setting  sun;  here  the  ram  is  sacrificed  and  his  fleece  is 
spread  out  (the  golden  glory  of  the  sunset)  on  a  tree  (the  sky  of 
night  with  its  golden  stars)  where  it  is  captured  by  Jason.  Jason 
sailed  in  the  ship  "Argo;"  wherefore  Jason  was  called  an  argo- 
naut. The  name  suggests  the  Indian  "argha"  or  sacred  yoni- 

'Chariots  of  fire  were  n  widespread  conception.  In  II  Kings  ii,  11,  we  read:  "And  it  came 
to  pass,  •  •  •  that  behold,  there  appeared  a  chariot  of  fire,  and  horses  of  fire  *  •  •  and  Elijah 
went  up  in  a  whirlwind  into  heaven." 


550 


SEX   AND   SEX   WOKSHIP 


shaped  vessels,  and  some  writers  have  suggested  that  the  "  golden 
fleece"  referred  to  the  pubic  hair. 

Jason  was  an  Ionian;  the  lonians  were  worshippers  of  the 
sun,  and  great  traders  and  navigators.  Jason's  trip  was  a  jour- 
ney in  search  of  profit  (the  golden  fleece). 

Atreus,  who  lived  in  Mycenae,  possessed  a  ram  with  a  golden 
fleece,  which  was  stolen  by  his  brother.  Up  to  this  time  the  sun 
had  risen  in  the  west  and  set  in  the  east;  but  Zeus  now  reversed 
this  and  caused  the  sun  to  rise  in  the  east.  This  caused  the 
brother  to  repent  and  bring  the  ram  back  to  Atreus.  Atreus  then 


Fig.  359. — Phaeton  struck  down  by  Jupiter's  thunderbolts. 

asked  him  to  a  banquet  at  which  he  served  up  a  dish  in  which  he 
had  cooked  his  brother's  child.  This  probably  referred  to  a  hu- 
man sacrifice.  Zeus  was  so  offended  that  he  wrought  a  great 
many  trials  on  Agamemnon,  son  of  Atreus. 

Keversing  the  motion  of  the  sun  is  from  the  same  stock  of 
folklore  as  the  story  told  in  the  Bible,  Josh,  x,  12-13:— "Then 
spoke  Joshua  *  *  *  sun?  stand  thou  still  upon  Gibeon,  and 
thou,  moon,  in  the  valley  of  Ajalon.  And  the  sun  stood  still  and 
the  moon  stayed  *  *  *." 

In  Polynesia  the  god  Maui  compelled  the  sun  to  quit  his  ir- 


SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP  551 

regular  habits  and  forced  him  to  run  on  regular  schedule  and 
over  a  regular  route,  by  giving  him  a  sound  thrashing ;  ever  since 
which  time  the  sun  has  behaved  himself. 

From  sun-worship  comes  our  attitude  of  prayer  in  church- 
shielding  the  eyes  from  the  brilliance  of  the  deity;  likewise  our 
method  of  having  the  hands  of  the  watch  go  'round,  following 
the  motion  of  the  sun;  most  of  our  screws  are  cut  that  way;  in 
the  highlands  of  Scotland  and  in  England  the  decanters  are 
passed  around  in  the  same  direction;  in  India  it  is  a  sacred  rite 
at  wedding  festivals  to  walk  in  that  way;  going  around  with  the 
sun  works  a  blessing;  going  against  the  sun,  a  curse  (see  Josh, 
ch.  vi). 

Erebus  (Darkness)  and  Myx  (Night)  were  brother  and  sis- 
ter, children  of  Chaos;  according  to  Plesiod  Night  became  the 
wife  of  Erebus;  she  gave  birth  to  Aether  (the  upper  atmosphere) 
and  to  Day;  she  was  also  the  mother  of  the  Parcae,  of  Sleep, 
Dreams,  Hunger,  Fear,  Nemesis  (Revenge),  Strife  and  Death. 

Hekate  was  a  Greek  goddess  of  the  moon;  she  is  simply  a  va- 
riant of  Persephone  (Proserpina)  who  as  queen  of  the  lower 
world  is  also  bed-mate  of  the  sun  when  he  has  retired  for  the 
night  at  sunset;  that  she  was  also  the  wife  of  Pluto  is  not  incon- 
sistent with  this  statement,  for  there  were  and  still  are  people, 
whose  ideas  of  hospitality  demand  that  a  man  should  give  his 
wife  to  entertain  a  guest  who  stays  overnight.  As  companion  of 
the  sun,  she  became  identified  with  the  moon,  and  confounded 
with  Diana.  Hekate  presided  over  magic  arts  and  spells,  and  all 
incantations  were  undertaken  at  night  by  the  light  of  the  moon. 
She  was  merely  the  same  conceit  as  Diana  or  Artemis,  but  was 
worshipped  by  the  more  savage  tribes  of  Greece,  while  Diana  was 
a  more  civilized  conception. 

According  to  Hesiod,  she  was  a  daughter  of  Asteria,  the 
starry  sky  of  night.  Her  symbol,  like  that  of  Diana,  was  a 
crescent. 

Byzantium  was  an  ancient  Greek  city  on  the  Bosphorus,  on 
the  most  easterly  hill  of  the  seven  hills  on  which  stands  the  mod- 
ern Constantinople.  During  a  siege  in  390  B.C.,  by  Philip,  the 
father  of  Alexander  the  Great,  the  Macedonians  attempted  a  sur- 
prise attack  one  dark  night;  suddenly  the  clouds  parted,  and  the 
bright  moonlight  showed  the  Byzantines  their  danger  in  time  to 


552 


SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 


repel  the  attack.  Out  of  gratitude,  the  Byzantines  erected  an 
altar  in  honor  of  the  moon,  or  Diana,  or  Hekate,  and  placed  a 
crescent  on  their  coins. 

Constantinople  kept  the  crescent  as  her  symbol,  while  a  Chris- 
tian city,  and  when  the  Turks  conquered  it  in  1453,  they  also  kept 
the  crescent  as  their  emblem. 

Artemis  or  Diana  was  most  generally  regarded  as  the  moon 


Fig.  360. — The  nymph  Arethusa,  pur- 
sued by  Alphaeus,  is  changed  into  a  spring 
of  water  by  Diana. 


Fig.  361. — Head-dress  represents  mar- 
riage of  sun  and  moon;  Karnak  temple, 
Egypt. 


goddess ;  she  was  the  twin  sister  of  Apollo ;  they  were  children  of 
Latona  (Leto)  and  Zeus.  In  Arcadia  she  was  said  to  be  a  she- 
bear;  which  probably  meant  that  she  was  of  the  bear-clan  (a  to- 
temistic  idea  similar  to  the  one  which  elsewhere  said  that  Athena 
was  of  the  goat-clan).  Artemis  or  Diana  was  a  virgin  goddess; 
ever  youthful,  innocent,  modest  and  chaste.  She  was  the  especial 
guardian  of  children  and  young  maidens.  Thus,  when  Arethusa 
was  pursued  by  Alphaeus,  she  appealed  to  Diana  to  save  her, 
which  the  goddess  did  by  changing  the  nymph  into  a  fountain  of 
water.  As  protectress  of  girlish  purity  and  chastity,  Diana  was 
also  the  goddess  of  prostitutes,  like  Venus  (see  page  511). 

The  moon  was  Cybele,  Astarte,  Diana,  Hekate,  Artemis,  Isis, 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  553 

etc.  The  sculpture  from  a  temple  at  Thebes,  Egypt,  shows  sun  and 
moon  in  sexual  union  or  coition,  the  crude  literal  conceit  of  the 
sun  lying  on  top  of  the  (crescent)  moon  (Fig.  361). 

Cybele  was  sometimes  called  the  ' '  Mother  of  the  Gods ; ' '  her 
cult  was  brought  to  Italy  by  Aeneas,  about  360  B.C.  The  Romans 
also  worshipped  Lucina,  whom  they  confounded  with  Diana,  Ar- 
temis and  Juno.  Cicero  tells  us  that  Lucina  is  implored  in  pray- 
ers during  childbirth,  because  the  moon  has  a  great  influence  on 
pregnancy  and  parturition ;  this  was  possibly  because  experience 
showed  that  most  cases  of  delivery  are  in  the  night-time,  or  under 
the  rule  of  the  moon. 

The  chaste  Diana,  a  precursor  of  the  Christian  virgin,  was 
symbolically  represented  by  the  crescent  moon,  or  as  a  goddess 
wearing  a  crescent  as  a  tiara. 

The  Angelus  in  Catholic  countries  is  a  ringing  of  a  bell  to 
call  the  faithful  to  recite  the  angelic  salutation.  It  is  rung  three 
times  a  day.  The  prayer  is  addressed  to  the  virgin  Mary. 

A  similar  call  to  prayer  is  found  in  the  Mohammedan  re- 
ligion; a  Muezzin  (or  Moeddhin)  calls  the  faithful  to  prayer  from 
the  porch  of  a  high  minaret  of  a  mosque.  The  Muezzins  for  this 
service  are  generally  blind  men,  because  their  station  overlooks 
the  roofs  of  the  neighboring  houses,  where,  on  hot  days  or  nights, 
the  women  and  children  sleep  naked. 

The  identification  of  the  moon  with  the  virgin  Diana  led  to 
the  association  of  the  Virgin  Mary  with  the  moon  as  in  the  paint- 
ing of  the  "Conception,"  by  Murillo  (Fig.  363). 

A  Greek  or  Roman  matron,  when  with  child,  prayed  to  the 
moon,  or  Artemis,  to  aid  her  in  her  approaching  confinement. 
Hekate,  the  Greek  moon  goddess,  also  presided  over  childbirth 
in  ancient  Greece.  Many  superstitions  in  regard  to  the  influence 
of  the  moon  on  fertility  persist  to  this  day  among  agricultural 
people ;  the  moon  has  an  influence  on  the  grape  crop,  and  some  will 
not  trim  the  vines  in  the  spring  when  the  moon  is  increasing,  but 
others  will  not  do  so  when  it  is  decreasing.  A  trace  of  the  super- 
stition remains,  but  not  a  distinct  and  uniform  one.  Crops  that 
mature  above  ground,  like  corn,  etc.,  must  be  planted  during  the 
increasing  moon,  while  crops  that  mature  under  ground,  like  pota- 
toes, must  be  planted  during  decreasing  moon,  etc. 

Hekate,  the  moon,  or  moon  goddess  was  also  the  goddess  of 
witchcraft.  Those  wrho  sleep  where  the  light  of  the  moon  could 


554 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


fall  on  them  were  supposed  to  become  insane,  that  is,  a  magic 
spell  was  thrown  over  them,  according  to  ancient  ideas ;  from  this 
belief  we  derived  the  word  "lunatic."  "Tic"  is  a  French  word 
meaning  a  twitching  of  the  muscles,  or  a  stroke ;  as  tic  douloureux, 
neuralgia  of  the  facial  nerves  and  muscles,  etc. ;  lima  is  Latin  for 
moon,  therefore  luna-tic  means  a  stroke  or  injury  from  or  by  the 
moon.  This  is  still  generally  believed  to  be  true  (Fig.  364),  and 
it  is  not  uncommon  in  Cuba  to  see  people  carrying  open  umbrellas 
over  their  heads  on  moonlit  nights,  to  protect  themselves  against 
the  injurious  effects  of  the  light  of  the  moon. 


Fig.  362. — Marriage    of    sun   and   moon; 
an  alchemistic  representation. 


Fig.  363. — "The    Conception,"    from    a 
painting  by  Murillo. 


The  stars  were  an  endless  source  of  observation  and  specula- 
tion to  mankind  in  all  times ;  and  when  the  planets  were  conceived 
of  as  gods,  it  was  not  difficult  to  originate  similar  ideas  about  the 
stars.  At  a  quite  early  time  it  was  noticed  that  some  stars  were 
fixed  in  their  places,  others  changed  location ;  the  latter  were  sup- 
posed to  wander  about  in  an  erratic  manner,  as  is  implied  in  the 
Greek  word  "planetes,"  our  planets. 

Among  the  Greeks  Urania  (meaning  celestial  or  heavenly) 
was  a  muse  who  presided  over  the  study  of  the  stars,  now  called 
astronomy;  this  study,  in  its  present  sense,  is  a  comparatively 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


555 


modern  science,  as  formerly  the  stars  and  planets  were  supposed 
to  have  a  controlling  influence  over  the  destinies  of  men,  and  the 
science  of  reading  the  horoscope  of  an  individual  was  called  as- 
trology. The  sky  of  night  wTith  its  wonderful  array  of  stars  was 
a  goddess  named  Asteria.  Venus  Urania,  in  her  capacity  as 
heavenly  or  chaste  love,  was  said  to  be  the  daughter  of  Uranus 
(Sky)  and  Light. 

The  ancient  Persians  or  Iranians,  as  early  as  about  600  B.C., 
had  already  formulated  a  parallelism  between  the  planets  Saturn, 
Jupiter,  Mars,  Venus,  Sun,  Mercury  and  moon  and  certain  parts 
of  the  human  body ;  even  earlier,  the  Assyrians  had  similar  ideas ; 
and  these  still  are  held  by  some  believers  in  astrology.  The  plan- 


•»»'     ml 

ir;iv^iiii 

^i^tyi 

?  lita^WWSCwr^^ 

*^2iX*j 


;«_--*—- 

Fig.  364. — Influence  of  the  moon  on  the  heads  of  women;  from  an  engraving  by  Lagniet, 

in  the  XVII  Century. 

ets  and  stars  were  supposed  to  preside  over  the  destinies  of  people 
and  of  their  rulers,  as  well  as  over  the  destinies  of  individuals, 
and  it  was  the  business  of  the  astrologers  to  forecast  horoscopes 
or  planetary  calculations  in  regard  to  the  newborn  and  the  prob- 
able course  of  their  lives.  In  this  connection  see  illustrations  from 
Book  of  Life,  Figs.  300,  301,  and  302. 

The  constellations  were  fantastic  combinations  of  stars  sup- 
posed to  represent  various  dragons,  beasts  and  other  forms. 

Xenophanes  (about  GOO  B.C.)  was  a  Greek  philosopher  who 
taught  that  the  sun  was  a  torch  and  that  the  stars  were  candles 
which  were  periodically  lit  and  extinguished.  The  latter  is  a 
childish  idea,  but  a  perfectly  natural  one.  I  saw  a  little  child,  after 
having  seen  her  elders  blow  out  the  candles  on  her  Christmas  tree, 


556  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

try  to  blow  out  the  stars  one  night ;  and  primitive  men  are  merely 
children  in  intellect. 

The  zodiac  was  the  heaven,  which  by  its  constellations  showed 
the  sun  its  course  and  its  duties;  the  earth  was  the  fixed  center 
of  the  universe.  It  is  not  pertinent  here  to  go  into  details  about 
the  zodiacal  signs;  suffice  it  to  say  that  the  twelve  zodiacal  signs 
were  the  ancient  "Twelve  Great  Gods." 

In  India  the  zodiac  had  twenty-seven  divisions;  the  equality 
of  the  divisions  in  the  degrees  of  the  heavenly  circle  they  covered 
was  explained  by  the  theory  that  the  moon  ("King  Soma")  was 
obliged  to  divide  his  time  equally  between  his  wives,  the  twenty- 
seven  daughters  of  Prajapati. 

The  shapes  of  some  constellations  were  easily  made  out,  oth- 
ers were  more  difficult  to  explain.  The  constellation  Ursa  major, 
the  "Great  Bear,"  the  "Waggon,"  the  "Car  of  Daniel,"  which 
we  know  best  as  the  dipper  is  probably  the  best  known,  because  it 
serves  as  a  guide  to  finding  the  North  Star.  To  the  Jews  it  sug- 
gested a  bier  followed  by  three  mourners;  the  early  Christians 
changed  this  to  the  bier  of  Lazarus,  followed  by  Mary,  Martha 
and  Mary  the  Magdalen  as  mourners. 

Many  primitive  people  believe  stars  to  be  men  and  women; 
the  Eskimos  considered  them  to  be  their  ancestors.  The  Rig- 
Veda  (India)  says  that  the  good  in  this  life  become  stars  after 
death. 

In  Australia  the  Pleiades  were  supposed  to  be  a  group  of 
girls;  this  was  also  the  Greek  idea,  with  the  addition,  however, 
that  they  said  that  Maia,  the  oldest  and  the  fairest  of  the  Pleiades, 
was  the  *  *  Good  Mother, ' '  and  they  called  her  also  Ma,  Cybele,  or 
Bona  Dea  (Good  Goddess). 

Castor  and  Pollux,  in  both  countries,  Greece  and  Australia, 
were  said  to  be  young  men.  Coincidences  of  this  kind  are  too  com- 
mon to  be  due  to  chance  and  we  are  forced  to  believe  that  such 
ideas  were  carried  from  one  part  of  the  world  to  another  part 
during  pre-historic  times. 

The  Hyades  are  five  stars  which  form  the  head  of  the  con- 
stellation "The  Bull"  (Taurus)  said  by  the  Hindus  to  be  a  bull 
among  a  herd  of  cows;  they  were  said  to  be  daughters  of  Atlas 
who  were  translated  to  heaven  for  some  pious  deed  done  during 
their  earthly  lives.  But  enough  of  detail;  only  one  more  thing 
need  be  stated.  In  the  days  of  Renaud,  Descartes,  and  others 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  557 

(about  1500-1G50  A.D.)  it  was  taught  that  the  souls  of  the  dead 
would  be  translated  to  the  stars,  where  they  would  meet  varying 
degrees  of  happiness  according  to  their  deserts.  In  other  words, 
it  was  believed  that  paradise  (II  Cor.  xii,  4)  \vas  located  on  the 
stars. 

PHALLIC  FESTIVALS 

In  early  historic  times  marriages  of  any  kind,  monogamous 
or  polygamous,  between  one  man  and  one  or  more  women,  with 
the  idea  that  the  man  content  himself  with  his  wife  or  wives,  and 
the  woman  or  women  with  the  one  man,  had  not  yet  become  a 
general  practice;  this  follows  from  statements  as  to  the  states- 
men or  rulers  who  first  introduced  marriage.  For  instance,  the 
Greeks  said  that  Cecrops  introduced  permanent  marriages  into 
Greece  in  2590  B.C.,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  Egyptians; 
this  implied  that  before  that  time  there  were  no  marriages  in  the 
proper  sense  of  the  word.  It  was  not  considered  wrong  for  a  man 
to  cohabit  with  any  woman  who  was  conveniently  available,  and 
who  could  be  coaxed  or  forced. 

This  was  the  old  customary  horde  or  tribal  relationship; 
no  shame  or  obloquy  was  attached  to  coition,  so  that  there  was 
no  particular  reason  why  this  should  not  have  been  done  in  public. 
It  is  true  that  some  authors,  like  Sanger,  doubt  this  statement, 
but  if  we  accept  the  theory  of  evolution  as  established,  mankind 
must  have  gone  through  such  a  social  state  for  it  was  the  condi- 
tion of  the  mammal  animals  from  which  mankind  sprang.  Such 
conditions,  scandalous  as  they  may  appear  to  us,  were  natural  to 
primitive  people  whose  ethical  sense  was  still  very  low  and  gross, 
as  were  their  morals  and  religions.  It  was  prostitution,  as  we 
now  call  it,  but  we  attach  an  obloquy  and  reproach  to  this  word 
which  did  not  apply  to  the  condition  in  those  days. 

Reproach  and  disgrace  for  such  practices  was  the  result  of 
ages  of  progress  in  morals,  yet  even  now  marriage  is  only  a 
superficial  varnish  or  finish  of  civilization,  and  the  condition  de- 
scribed is  not  yet  suppressed;  the  condition  persists  in  a  gross 
way  in  most  of  our  larger  cities  where  regular  "houses  of  prosti- 
tution" flourish;  or  in  a  more  private  way,  when  men  keep  mis- 
tresses; or,  as  so  plainly  stated  by  one  of  the  characters  in  the 
Money-Maker  by  Irving  R.  Allen,  who  compares  the  advantages 


558 

of  his  bachelor  life  with  the  married  life  of  his  friend:  "I  seek 
only  the  woman  whose  company  I  can  buy  for  money.  Don't 
misunderstand  me.  That  statement  is  broad  enough  to  cover 
everything  from  the  most  innocent  to  the  worst  thoughts  you 
have  in  mind.  I  purchase  only  the  choicest  and  most  select  wares 
the  city  has  to  offer.  My  wooing — a  telephone  call.  The  woman 
comes  into  my  life  only  when  I  am  in  the  mood.  And  it  is  all  light 
and  laughter  and  endeavor  to  entertain  and  amuse  me.  The 
darker  side  of  whims  and  temperament  are  avoided.  For  you 
see,  I  pay  my  price  in  cash  for  pleasure.  What  matter  how  these 
women  really  feel  towards  me?  What  if  their  sweetness  and 
kindness  is  assumed?  And  when  I  tire,  I  pay.  The  in- 

cident is  closed,  ended,  and  I  am  again  free  to  pick  and  choose, 
master  of  myself." 

This  describes  how  life  is  now!  And  authors  say  that  such 
conditions  have  existed — always,  and  that  they  probably  will  con- 
tinue to  exist,  always. 

Among  the  early  Jews  this  condition,  which  we  may  for  brev- 
ity's sake  call  prostitution,  without  attaching  to  it  the  modern 
sense  of  shame,  was  common ;  it  was  not  until  the  days  of  Moses 
that  the  sentiment  against  such  practices  began  to  develop ;  Moses 
forbade  the  promiscuous  cohabitation  between  Jewish  men  and 
women,  but  permitted  it  between  the  men  and  the  women  of  the 
neighboring  tribes,  the  Midianites,  Moabites,  etc.  Most  of  the 
legislation  of  Moses  was  based  on  hygienic  grounds,  and  it  ap- 
pears that  a  disease  called  "issue"  in  the  Bible  (probably  a  form 
of  gonorrhoea)  was  a  frequent  result  of  these  promiscuous  con- 
nections, which  of  course  must  have  been  indulged  in  more  fre- 
quently because  plentiful  opportunities  were  offered.  So  afraid 
was  Moses  of  the  spread  of  this  disease  that  he  forbade  cohabita- 
tion within  a  certain  time  after  menstruation,  or  the  "custom  of 
women"  as  it  is  called  in  the  Bible  (Gen.  xxxi,  35). 

These  conditions  were  far  worse  among  the  Moabites,  the 
Midianites  and  other  neighbors  of  the  Jews,  so  that  Moses  (pre- 
tending to  speak  for  God)  forbade  the  Jews  to  keep  alive  as 
slaves  or  concubines  any  women  of  these  tribes  when  they  cap- 
tured them  in  war;  only  virgin  girls  were  permitted  to  be  en- 
slaved but  the  other  women  had  to  be  killed. 

Conditions  in  Asia  Minor,  Syria,  Greece,  Irania,  etc.,  were 
similar.  Also  in  Egypt  there  were  few  restraints  on  promiscuous 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  559 

sexual  congress;  especially  was  this  true  of  Egypt,  because  their 
temples  abounded  in  drawings  and  sculptures  of  gods  and  god- 
desses showing  their  genital  organs,  of  phalluses,  breasts  of  god- 
desses, and  of  gods  masturbating,  gods  having  seminal  emissions, 
etc. ;  and  their  clothing  was  too  scant  to  hide  the  sexual  organs 
of  the  men,  the  lower  classes  being  naked  while  working  and  the 
wealthy  women  dressed  in  diaphanous  garments.  Temptations 
and  opportunities  beckoned  and  the  moral  standards  did  not  re- 
strain. No  disgrace  was  attached  to  being  a  prostitute,  and  at 
one  time  girls  followed  this  calling  to  earn  a  dowry. 

In  Greece  Lycurgus  was  the  great  lawgiver.  He  organized 
the  state,  and  placed  a  senate  of  twenty-eight  at  the  head  of  the 
state.  Plutarch  says  that  this  mystic  number  was  chosen  "be- 
cause it  consists  of  seven  multiplied  by  four,  and  is  the  first  per- 
fect number  after  six  (see  p.  104),  being  as  that  is,  equal  to  all 
its  parts."  *  *  * 

"He  ordered  the  maidens  to  exercise  themselves  with  wres- 
tling, running,  throwing  the  quoit,  and  casting  the  dart,  to  the  end 
that  the  fruit  they  conceived  might,  in  strong  and  healthy  bodies, 
take  firmer  root  and  find  better  growth.  *  *  *  And  to  the  end 
that  he  might  take  away  their  over-great  tenderness  and  fear  of 
exposure  to  the  air  he  ordered  that  the  young  women 

should  go  naked  in  the  processions,  as  well  as  the  young  men, 
and  dance,  too,  in  that  condition,  at  certain  solemn  feasts,  singing 
certain  songs,  while  the  young  men  stood  around  seeing  and  hear- 
ing them.  These  public  processions  of  the  maidens,  and 
their  appearing  naked  in  their  exercises  and  dancings,  were  in- 
citements to  marriage,  operating  upon  the  young  with  the  rigor 
and  certainty,  as  Plato  says,  of  love,  if  not  of  mathematics." 

Unmarried  persons  had  certain  penalties  inflicted  on  them  in 
some  countries.  In  Sparta,  bachelors  were  not  allowed  to  see 
the  gymnastic  exercises  of  the  maidens,  at  which  they  were  naked ; 
and  on  a  winter  day  they  were  compelled  to  march  naked  around 
the  market  place  and  sing  songs  ridiculing  their  unmarried 
condition. 

Men  were  encouraged  to  lend  their  wives  to  specially  well- 
formed  men,  for  a  time,  so  that  their  wives  might  have  perfect 
offspring.  The  houses  of  prostitution,  both  in  Greece  and  Rome, 
belonged  to  the  state,  which  stocked  them  with  slaves  that  could 
be  enjoyed  for  a  quite  small  remuneration,  yet  the  profit  from 


560  SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

this  "public  utility"  was  so  great  that  Athens  built  a  magnificent 
temple  to  Venus  Castina,  the  goddess  of  indecency.  Add  to  all 
this  that  the  countries  were  tropical  or  subtropical,  clothing  not 
necessary  and  many  of  both  sexes  habitually  going  naked,  the 
passions  were  fiercer  in  robust  bodies,  the  bonds  of  matrimony  not 
very  binding,  concubinage  and  prostitution  freely  permitted  and 
even  encouraged — how  can  we  expect  these  people  to  have  had 
any  very  high  ethical  sentiments!  Their  religions  were  tainted 
with  coarse  ethical  features,  and  their  ceremonials  were  often  de- 
graded and  unrefined.  Such  were  the  conditions  in  Egypt,  Greece, 
Rome,  etc.,  where  phallic  worship  was  in  vogue;  we  will  see  the 
results  in  their  festivals. 

Still  further!  in  Greece  it  was  considered  a  disgrace  for  a 
young  man  not  to  have  a  lover;  "Greek  Love,"  or  coitus  in  ano 
was  universally  practiced. 

It  was  not  a  disgrace  to  indulge  in  Greek  Love ;  it  was  a  re- 
proach to  be  known  as  not  doing  so.  Even  St.  Paul  makes  a 
reproach  for  members  of  the  Christian  church  to  have  adopted 
this  form  of  love,  for  he  says  in  Rom.  i,  27 :  "  And  likewise  also  the 
men,  leaving  the  natural  use  of  the  woman,  burned  in  their  lust 
one  toward  another;  men  with  men  working  that  which  is 
unseemly.  *  *  *" 

Legislators  encouraged,  rather  than  otherwise,  all  natural 
and  rational  use  of  woman,  even  if  promiscuous,  in  order  to  check 
the  spread  of  this  unnatural  vice. 

In  Rome  prostitution  was  practiced  on  a  very  extensive  scale ; 
it  was  accepted  as  a  necessity  and  generally  indulged.  Men  could 
not  commit  adultery  except  with  a  married  woman;  nor  could  a 
wife  divorce  a  husband.  The  prostitutes  were  of  various  ranks ; 
Sanger  tells  us  that  they  were  graded  as  follows,  but  some  of 
these  groups  seem  a  bit  doubtful,  as  the  Doris,  for  example,  to 
which  I  find  no  other  reference. 

The  highest  rank  of  prostitutes  were  the  Delicatae,  "kept 
women,"  or  mistresses  of  wealthy  patrons,  who  corresponded  to 
the  hetaerae  of  the  Greeks.  Next  came  the  Famosae,  daughters 
of  respectable  families,  who  followed  this  calling  because  they 
"needed  the  money"  or  because  they  enjoyed  the  pleasure;  the 
Doris  (?)  were  very  beautiful  women  who  went  naked  habitually; 
the  Lupae,  or  she-wolves,  were  poor  women  who  lived  in  squalid 
shelters  in  the  woods,  under  the  arches  (fornices)  of  the  colos- 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


561 


seum  or  temples,  in  abandoned  or  ruined  buildings,  etc.,  and  who 
entertained  their  customers  in  the  alley-ways  or  even  in  the  less 
frequented  streets,  for  there  was  no  street-lighting  in  those  days ; 
Laurentia,  the  foster-mother  of  Remus  and  Romulus,  who  saved 
their  lives  when  they  were  abandoned  to  die,  was  a  lupa  or  she- 
wolf.  The  Elicariae  were  bakers'  girls  or  slaves,  who  were  sent 
out  to  sell  little  cakes  of  the  shapes  of  the  genital  organs  of  men 
and  women  for  sacrificial  offerings  in  the  temples  of  Priapus  or 
Venus,  and  who  carried  on  the  business  of  prostitution  as  a  side- 
line; Bustuariae  had  their  homes  in  the  cemeteries,  where  they 
carried  on  the  business  of  hiring  out  as  professional  mourners, 
also  with  prostitution  as  a  sideline.  Copae  were  the  slave  serv- 
ant-girls, chamber-maids,  etc.,  in  taverns  and  inns,  who  could  al- 


Fig.  365. — Sign  from  an  inn,  found  in  Pompeii. 

ways  be  hired  by  the  guests  as  bed-mates  for  the  night ;  Noctiliae, 
or  night-walkers,  a  class  resembling  our  modern  street-walkers; 
Blitidae,  a  degraded  set  of  women  who  were  usually  drunk  on 
blitum,  a  cheap  drink  or  wine;  Diabolares,  whose  fee  was  a  diabo- 
lon  (about  two  cents) ;  Forariae,  country  girls  who  lurked  at  the 
roadsides  to  pick  up  a  little  money;  Gallinae,  who  combined  the 
trade  of  prostitute  with  that  of  thief;  and  the  Quadrantariae, 
whose  fee  was  the  smallest  copper  coin  made  in  Rome  (value  about 
half-a-cent),  or  a  piece  of  fish,  or  bread,  or  a  drink. 

Then  every  baker,  tavern-keeper,  bath-house  keeper,  barber, 
and  perfumer  kept  attendant  prostitutes  to  accommodate  their 
customers ;  no  one  was  obliged  to  do  without  the  pleasures  of  sex 


562 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 


if  he  could  raise  the  price,  which  ruled  from  one-half  cent  upwards. 
Then  there  were  the  lupanaria  or  houses  of  prostitution,  pri- 
vate as  well  as  public;  the  public  lupanaria  were  the  property  of 
the  state,  stocked  with  girl-slaves  which  were  at  the  service  of  the 
public  for  a  very  small  fee.  During  the  persecutions  of  the  Chris- 
tians the  pretty  girls  and  women  were  not  killed  in  the  arenas  but 
were  sent  to  the  lupanaria  as  slaves.  The  private  lupanaria,  kept 
by  bawds,  were  also  stocked  with  slave-girls,  but  some  houses  seem 
to  have  been  kept  by  the  women  themselves;  this  sign  (Fig.  365) 


Fig.  366. — Ancient  Roman  fruitstand,  now  in  museum  in  Herculaneum. 

of  a  house  of  this  kind  has  come  down  to  our  time:  "Ad  Sorores 
Quatuor" — to  the  Four  Sisters.  I  also  show  a  call-bell  of  those 
days  (Fig.  367)  from  the  Museum  at  Herculaneum. 

Respectable  women  were  kept  secluded  in  their  homes,  except 
on  holidays,  or  when  they  attended  the  public  shows  at  the  Colos- 
seum or  at  the  theatres ;  these  shows  were  not  overly  refined,  their 
comedies  often  being  grossly  and  coarsely  suggestive,  the  actors 
sometimes  having  monstrous  property  phalluses  fastened  in 
front;  these  phalluses  were  usually  painted  brilliant  red,  from 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  563 

which,  perhaps,  our  phrase  of  "painting  the  town  red"  is  a  sur- 
vival. 

When  women  went  to  the  theatres,  it  was  quite  "de  rigeur" 
to  wear  nothing  at  all,  as  we  are  told  by  Saint  Chrysostom.  More- 
over, the  slaves  of  the  household  were  often  naked;  especially 
those  who  waited  on  the  women  of  the  family.  This  was  shown  in 
the  dead  bodies  which  were  found  during  the  excavations  of  Her- 
culaneum  and  Pompeii,  which  were  destroyed  during  an  eruption 
of  Mt.  Vesuvius. 

The  public  bath-houses  were  palatial  institutions,  replete  with 
luxurious  appointments.  In  earlier  times  the  men  and  women 


Fig.  367. — Call-bells,  used  in  ancient  Rome;   note  hand  indicating  coition. 

bathed  in  separate  establishments,  but  in  later  times  they  bathed 
together;  and  the  respectable  matrons  and  girls  were  no  longer 
confined  to  the  privacy  of  their  homes  but  were  permitted  to 
attend  the  public  plays  or  the  public  baths. 

Sanger,  in  his  History  of  Prostitution  describes  Roman  society 
as  follows:  "Though  there  were  separate  sudaria  (hot  baths)  and 
tepidaria  (luke-warm  baths)  for  the  sexes,  they  could  meet  freely 
in  the  corridors  and  chambers.  *  *  *  Men  and  women,  girls  and 
boys,  mixed  together  in  a  state  of  perfect  nudity,  and  in  such  close 
proximity  that  contact  could  hardly  be  avoided.  *  *  *  Young 
men  and  young  women  were  kept  on  the  premises,  partly  as  bath 
attendants,  partly  as  prostitutes.  After  the  bath,  the  bathers,  male 


564  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

and  female,  were  rubbed  down,  kneaded  and  anointed  by  these 
attendants.  Women  submitted  to  have  this  service  per- 

formed for  them  by  men.    *    *    * 

''At  Rome,  the  Avails  of  respectable  houses  were  covered  with 
paintings  of  which  one  hardly  dares  in  our  times  to  mention  the 
subjects.  Lascivious  frescoes  and  lewd  sculptures  filled 

the  halls  of  the  most  virtuous  Roman  citizens  and  nobles. 
Such  groups  as  satyrs  and  nymphs,  Leda  and  the  swan,  satyrs 
and  she-goats  were  abundant.     All  of  these  were  daily  exposed 
to  the  eyes  of  children  and  young  girls." 

A  story  is  told  of  a  Roman  who  sued  to  divorce  his  wife, 
because  she  had  given  birth  to  a  mulatto  child;  her  advocate 
claimed  that  the  husband  himself  was  to  blame,  because  he  had 
a  fresco  in  his  bedroom  of  a  negro  and  a  white  woman  cohabiting ; 
naturally,  by  prenatal  influence,  his  wife  gave  birth  to  a  colored 
child!  His  plan  succeeded  and  the  wife  was  acquitted  of  the  ac- 
cusation that  she  had  had  connection  with  a  negro! 

religion  and  law  remained  to  assail  a  Roman  girl. 
In  every  field  and  in  many  a  square,  statues  of  Priapus 
presented  themselves  to  view,  often  surrounded  by  pious 
matrons  in  quest  of  favor  from  the  god.    *     *     *    When  her  mar- 
riage approached,  the  remains  of  her  modesty  were  effectually 
destroyed.    Before  marriage  she  was  led  to  the  statue  of  Mutinus, 
a  nude  sitting  figure,  and  made  to  sit  on  his  knee  that  the  god 
might  be  seen  first  to  have  tasted  her  chastity. ' ' 

When  the  couple  retired  to  their  room,  a  chorus  of  children 
sang  the  epithalamia,  or  bridal  songs,  which,  with  the  most  un- 
blushing plainness  of  speech,  described  what  the  couple  would  do 
during  the  night,  and  in  the  morning  they  were  greeted  with  an- 
other song  stating  what  they  had  been  doing.  In  later  times,  in 
Rome,  the  Epithalamium  was  sung  by  girls  only ;  possibly  because 
the  songs  were  too  obscene  to  be  sung  by  a  mixed  chorus.  And 
these  nuptial  songs,  in  all  their  unblushing  plainness  of  expres- 
sion, are  still  a  feature  at  all  the  Brahmanic  weddings  in  India. 

We  have  now  set  the  stage  for  the  description  of  the  festivals. 

When  we  celebrate  our  festivals,  Easter,  Thanksgiving,  Christ- 
mas, New  Years,  these  festivals,  even  when  of  religious  origin, 
do  not  imply  that  all  people,  or  even  most  people,  celebrate  them 
in  an  exclusively  religious  manner.  Even  those  who  go  to  church 
on  Easter  or  Christmas  forenoons,  come  home  to  eat  and  drink  a 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  565 

more  than  usually  abundant  meal,  so  that  a  feast  has  come  to  sig- 
nify, in  one  of  its  senses,  a  good  meal.  Then  there  is  visiting,  or 
going  to  entertainments,  etc.  Some  years  ago  when  New  Year's 
calling  was  still  the  rage,  this  festival  meant  that  young  men 
called  at  the  houses  of  their  women  friends,  where  they  were 
treated  to  cake  and  drinks,  so  that  most  of  them  were  drunk  by 
evening. 

Among  the  ancients  the  festivals  were  not  much  different; 
an  over-indulgence  in  the  pleasures  of  every-day  life  made  the 
days  festival  days.  In  the  Bible  the  word  feast  implies  festival; 
the  word  festival  is  not  used.  Originally  the  feasts  were  periods 
of  feasting  or  eating  in  Israel  and  it  was  not  until  the  times  of 
Nehemiah  that  the  feasts  were  made  a  period  of  religious  observ- 
ances. (See  page  102). 

The  Liberalia. — Liber  was  another  name  for  Bacchus ;  Libera 
for  Ariadne.  In  their  honor  the  feast  of  the  Liberalia  was  held; 
its  name  implied — "free  from  pain  or  sorrow." 

Liber  was  an  old  Italian  deity  who  presided  over  planting 
and  fructification,  and  who  was  later  on  identified  with  Bacchus, 
the  god  of  drunkenness  and  debauchery.  The  festival  in  his  honor 
was  a  spring  festival,  on  the  17th  day  of  March,  or  planting  time. 
Varro  tells  us  that  on  this  festival  day  the  phallus,  as  the  symbol 
of  this  god,  was  carried  in  procession  through  the  fields  and  lanes 
about  Rome  to  increase  the  crops.  In  Lavinium  a  phallus  was 
taken  to  the  public  market  place,  where  it  was  crowned  with  a 
garland  of  flowers  by  the  most  respectable  and  respected  matrons 
of  the  city. 

In  the  country  the  festival  was  characterized  by  the  grossest 
symbolism,  and  by  unrestricted  license;  men  and  women  cohabited 
along  the  roadsides  in  honor  of  the  marriage  of  Ariadne  (Libera) 
and  Bacchus  (Liber),  but  it  was  only  similar  to  what  was  done  on 
all  other  days,  except  that  it  was  done  more  exuberantly  and  joy- 
ously on  these  festival  days,  because  work  was  suspended  and 
wine  was  more  plentifully  imbibed. 

In  the  cities  the  grosser  features  were  less  in  evidence;  the 
boys  who  came  of  age  laid  aside  their  boyish  garb  and  assumed 
the  toga  virilis  or  man's  garb.  Cakes  (phallic  and  yonic  in  shape), 
honey  and  oil  were  offered  to  the  deities  in  sacrifice. 


566  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

The  Dionysia 

Bacchus  was  the  same  as  the  Greek  god  Dionysus.  In  his 
honor  the  festival  of  the  Dionysia  was  held;  it  was  celebrated 
most  enthusiastically  at  Attica.  Here  there  were  two  festivals 
annually.  The  lesser  Dionysia  was  held  in  December,  in  the  coun- 
try, where  the  vine  was  cultivated;  it  was  a  vintage  festival, 
accompanied  by  songs,  dances,  processions  carrying  the  phallus, 
performances  by  traveling  showmen,  and  various  rustic  sports. 

The  Greater  Dionysia  (in  Greece;  Bacchanalia  in  Borne)  was 
a  festival  held  in  Athens  once  in  three  years.  It  celebrated  the 
departure  of  winter  and  the  reappearance  of  spring;  it  is  per- 
petuated in  our  Easter  festival.  The  religious  part  of  the  festival 
consisted  in  conveying  the  ancient  image  of  the  god,  a  gigantic 
phallus,  which  had  been  brought  to  Athens  from  Eleutherae,  from 
the  ancient  temple  of  the  Lenaeon  to  another  sanctuary,  accom- 
panied by  a  chorus  of  boys  and  others  carrying  masks,  singing 
and  rejoicing  on  the  way. 

In  the  early  days  of  Kome  only  women  attended  the  festivals 
of  Dionysus,  but  later  on  men  were  also  admitted  and  the  cere- 
monies were  held  at  night  instead  of  in  the  daytime.  The  most 
important  part  of  the  festivals  were  the  "mysteries;"  these  were 
conducted  by  secret  societies  to  which  the  members  only  were  ad- 
mitted. The  young  men  were  admitted  to  membership  at  about 
the  age  of  twenty  years;  men  and  women  congregated  at  night, 
wine  flowed  in  abundance,  and  the  company  soon  was  drunken; 
the  most  outrageous  excesses  were  practiced  and  the  initiates, 
youths  or  maidens,  who  objected,  were  murdered  rather  than  have 
them  complain  in  public.  Even  men  with  men  (pederasty),  or 
women  with  women  (Lesbianism),  indulged  in  whatever  aberra- 
tions could  be  conceived  of. 

When  we  remember  what  occurred  daily  and  publicly  in  the 
bath  houses,  the  imagination  can  not  conceive  of  all  the  obscenities 
practiced  in  the  privacy  of  a  secret  society  organized  specially 
for  the  purpose  of  fostering  the  indecencies  of  phallic  orgies.  It 
would  not  add  anything  of  value  to  detail  the  practices ;  we  know 
from  the  ancient  writers  that  there  was  no  limit  to  the  vilenesses 
that  were  practiced,  and  we  can  realize  the  intensity  of  enthusiasm 
which  must  have  prevailed  in  the  phallic  orgies,  from  the  fact 
that  St.  Paul  even  reproached  the  Christians  for  similar  practices. 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  567 

In  recent  times  various  authors  have  written  on  Psychopathia 
sexualis,  describing  the  sexual  aberrations  and  perversions  as 
insanities;  this  book  is  not  intended  as  a  treatise  on  tribadism, 
sadism,  etc.,  but  it  may  be  stated  that  practically  all  our  modern 
perversions  are  deliberate  practices,  survivals  of  the  old  phallic 
''mysteries." 

Ancient  writers  tell  us  that  these  mysteries  were  largely  or- 
ganized for  criminal  purposes;  that  murders  were  planned  and 
executed,  wills  forged,  perjuries  arranged  for,  poisons  prepared 
and  dispensed,  and  so  on.  Writers  on  Phallic  worship  are  fond 
of  dwelling  with  glowing  words  on  the  purity  of  the  ideas  under- 
lying this  worship;  of  the  sacredness  attached  to  the  objects  ex- 
hibited, the  phalli  and  yoni,  both  of  the  gods  and  the  devotees. 
But  truth  demands  the  statement  that  the  practices  at  the  Liber- 
alia  and  the  Saturnalia  were  contrary  to  public  welfare  and  that 
the  authorities  often  attempted  to  suppress  them,  while  on  the 
other  hand  the  names  and  histories  of  the  emperors  who  encour- 
aged these  festivals,  Nero,  Caligula,  Tiberius,  etc.,  speak  plainly 
enough  for  the  real  nature  of  these  orgies.  We  may  imagine  that 
originally  the  ideas  underlying  the  worship  of  the  phallus  may 
have  been  pure,  but  it  is  too  much  of  a  strain  on  our  credulity  to 
believe  that  the  "mysteries"  of  Dionysus  were  considered  "pure" 
and  "divine"  by  any  of  the  participants  in  the  revelries,  which 
lasted  for  one  month  at  Lavinium,  during  which  time  all,  even  the 
otherwise  sedate  and  noble  Roman  ladies,  gave  themselves  up  to 
sexual  pleasures  and  debauchery  of  evtiry  kind.  These  festivals 
were  simply  the  same  thing  that  occurred  in  the  bath  houses  daily, 
but  the  practices  were  done  in  public,  on  the  streets,  in  the  tem- 
ples, before  the  altars  of  the  gods  and  goddesses,  by  nearly  every- 
body, old  and  young,  male  and  female,  citizens  and  strangers.  It 
was  practically  a  mardi  gras  season,  and  the  "town  was  wide 
open." 

Soon  after  the  Festival  in  honor  of  Liber,  or  Dionysus,  oc- 
curred the  festival  in  honor  of  Venus,  when  the  same  indulgences 
prevailed.  From  this  feast  we  have  our  word  "veneration," 
which  originally  meant  an  act  of  worship  of  Venus,  accompanied 
by  all  the  rites  mentioned  above.  During  this  festival  the  Roman 
women  formed  a  procession  and  went  to  the  Quirinal,  where  was 
kept  a  gigantic  phallus ;  they  conveyed  this  symbol  of  god  to  the 
temple  of  Venus  Ericyna,  where  it  was  formally  presented  to  the 


568  SEX   AND    SEX    WORSHIP 

goddess,  represented  in  the  temple  by  a  figure  of  a  gigantic  yoni. 
After  bringing  these  two  symbols  together,  with  the  religious  cere- 
monies attached  thereto,  the  women  escorted  the  phallus  back  to 
the  Quirinal. 

The  Floralia. — A  festival  in  honor  of  Flora,  the  goddess  of 
flowers.  We  have  already  learned  that  she  had  been  a  prosti- 
tute of  the  Delicatae  rank,  who  became  enormously  rich  from  her 
earnings.  Her  festival  was  of  the  same  general  character  as  the 
others  already  described;  only  more  so;  it  was  the  most  licentious 
of  all  the  festivals.  On  this  occasion  the  prostitutes  of  Rome 
went  naked  in  the  streets  and  the  Roman  matrons  and  maidens 
enjoyed  the  privileges  of  the  festivals  by  doing  likewise. 

The  Eleusinian  Mysteries. — A  secret  society  formed  to  ex- 
plain the  mysteries  of  death  and  reproduction;  the  festival  at 
which  the  myth  of  Demeter  and  her  daughter  Proserpina,  or  Cora, 
was  celebrated.  The  Greek  goddess  Demeter  and  the  Roman  god- 
dess Ceres,  were  identical;  the  goddess  of  the  crops  of  the  field. 

Proserpina  was  taken  by  Pluto,  God  of  the  Underworld,  and 
carried  to  Hades,  where  Pluto  established  her  as  his  queen.  Her 
mother,  Demeter,  sought  her  everywhere,  and  finally  prevailed 
on  Zeus  to  compel  Pluto  to  return  her  to  earth.  Zeus  agreed  to 
this  but  with  a  limitation ;  Proserpina  was  to  spend  half  the  year 
in  Hades  and  half  the  year  on  earth. 

When  she  was  in  Hades,  the  fields  failed  to  yield  crops  and 
the  flocks  to  yield  increase ;  it  was  winter.  When  she  returned  to 
earth,  all  nature  became  rejuvenated,  animals  mated  and  seeds 
sprouted;  it  was  spring  and  summer.  This  was  duly  celebrated 
at  the  festival  called  the  Eleusinian  mysteries,  possibly  the  most 
secret  and  most  sacred  of  all  Greek  and  Roman  festivals.  But 
little  of  the  details  of  this  festival  is  known,  but  it  was  similar 
in  its  rites  to  the  other  festivals. 

The  story  of  Demeter 's  trip  to  Hades  in  search  of  her  daugh- 
ter recalls  to  mind  the  Assyrian  story  of  Ishtar's  trip  to  Hades 
(p.  440),  and  was  simply  a  variant  of  the  same  folklore  myth.  It 
was  also  used  in  connection  with  Jesus  who  is  said  to  have  gone 
to  hell  (the  underworld)  for  three  days. 

During  a  festival  in  honor  of  Demeter  called  Tliesmyplwria, 
the  method  of  celebrating  was  different  to  the  rites  of  the  other 
festivals.  The  wives  refused  to  cohabit  with  their  husbands  for 
a  certain  length  of  time  in  honor  of  this  goddess.  Conjugal  coi- 


SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP  569 

tion  was  suspended  for  a  time.  This  probably  inconvenienced  the 
husbands  very  little,  as  other  women  were  not  obliged  to  abstain 
from  sexual  complaisance  to  the  desires  of  men. 

The  Lupercalia. — This  was  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  Koman 
festivals.  The  Lupercal  was  a  grotto  on  the  Palatine  Hill,  which 
was  sacred  to  Lupercus,  the  Lycean  god  Pan.  In  honor  of  this 
god  the  feast  of  the  Lupercalia  was  celebrated  in  the  last  month 
of  the  year — February.  Lupercus  was  a  god  who  drove  or  kept 
away  the  wolves,  therefore  a  protector  of  the  flocks.  In  his  ca- 
pacity of  Pan  he  presided  over  the  increase  in  flocks. 

The  priests  who  officiated  as  celebrants  at  the  altars  of  this 
god  on  his  festival  day  were  called  Luperci  (Lupercus,  i,  m.  in 
the  singular) ;  they  offered  a  goat  and  a  dog,  the  goat  from  the 
flocks,  the  dog  a  guardian  of  the  flocks;  in  archaic  times  human 
beings  (possibly  some  shepherds)  were  offered  instead  of  the 
dog;  in  memory  of  this  after  the  sacrifice  two  young  men  were 
led  to  the  altar,  where  their  foreheads  were  smeared  with  blood 
from  a  bloody  sword,  after  which  the  blood  was  wiped  off  with  a 
cloth  dipped  in  milk,  and  then,  according  to  the  ritual  the  two 
young  men  had  to  laugh.  A  feast  followed,  after  which  the  priests 
cut  thongs  from  the  hide  of  the  sacrificial  animals,  which  were 
fashioned  into  whips.  The  priests,  or  Luperci,  then  divided  into 
two  bands  which  ran  around  the  walls  of  the  Old  Palatine  city, 
striking  the  people  who  crowded  near  to  be  whipped.  Especially 
was  this  done  by  the  women  who  were  barren,  because  it  was  be- 
lieved that  a  stroke  on  their  bare  posteriors  with  one  of  these 
thongs  would  *  *  open  their  wombs, ' '  wherefore  the  women  thronged 
to  the  city  walls  perfectly  naked,  that  they  might  receive  the  full 
benefit  of  the  blessings  conferred  by  a  blow  at  the  hands  of  the 
priests,  the  Luperci,  who  were  also  naked.  The  thongs  were  called 
"februa,"  the  festival  "Februatio,"  and  the  day  "dies  febru- 
atus;"  from  these  words  the  month  was  called  Februarius,  the 
last  month  of  the  year  in  early  Roman  times  but  afterwards  the 
second  month,  the  same  as  our  February. 

The  festival  survives,  in  a  way,  in  certain  rural  districts  in 
Europe,  where  on  Halloween  eve  the  domestic  animals  as  well  as 
the  women  of  the  household  are  whipped  on  their  bare  genitals 
by  the  men,  to  prevent  them  from  being  sterile.  The  conjugal 
whippings,  especially  in  Russia,  are  also  survivals  of  this  same 
superstition. 


570  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

The  Agrionia  were  festivals  among  the  Boeotians  in  honor 
of  Dionysus,  and  were  solemnized  at  night,  by  women  and  the 
priests  only. 

Quintillian  (35-96  A.D.)  wrote  a  treatise  on  Education.  He 
writes:  "Would  that  we  ourselves  did  not  corrupt  the  morals  of 
our  children!  *  *  *  "\ye  are  delighted  if  they  utter  anything 
immodest.  *  *  *  Nor  is  this  wonderful ;  we  have  taught  them ; 
they  have  heard  such  language  from  ourselves.  They  see  our 
mistresses,  our  male  objects  of  affection;  every  dining  room  rings 
with  impure  songs;  things  shameful  to  be  told  are  objects  of 
sight.  From  such  practices  spring  habit  and  afterwards  nature. ' ' 

The  growing  generation  was  deliberately  trained  to  all  these 
indecencies.  The  houses  of  prostitution  had  signs  out,  and  their 
ornaments  were  of  grossly  phallic  character;  the  plays  on  the 
stages  were  immodest  and  the  ladies  attended  the  performances 
naked;  their  lamps  were  phallic;  their  jewelry  likewise;  and  no 
idea  of  religion  was  connected  with  these  things,  but  they  were 
purely  and  plainly  immoral  and  depraved. 

The  promiscuous  interspersing  of  such  terms  as  "rever- 
ently," "devoutly,"  "pious,"  "divine,"  etc.,  in  describing  the 
sexual  practices  indulged  in  by  devotees  at  the  phallic  festivals, 
as  is  done  by  most  of  the  authors  on  the  subject,  does  not  make 
the  acts  such. 

Campbell,  in  his  work  on  Phallic  Worship  says  that  "Bacchic 
groups,  including  seemingly  lascivious  scenes  on  vases,  lamps,  etc., 
are  of  religious  significance  and  therefore  not  indecent." 

Quintillian,  who  lived  in  those  days,  was  not  a  Christian;  he 
spoke  from  no  religious  prejudice  when  he  condemned  these  prac- 
tices as  shown  above.  And  the  many  wall-paintings  found  in 
Herculaneum  and  Pompeii,  representing  in  the  bed-rooms  and 
bathrooms  of  the  most  elegant  homes  scenes  of  indescribable  lewd- 
ness  and  licentiousness,  need  only  to  be  seen,  to  convince  any- 
one that  they  had  no  underlying  motive  of  religion. 

CONCERNING  THE  BACCHANALIA 

In  186  B.C.  the  Senate  made  inquiries. 

Livy  recorded  as  follows:  "A  Greek  of  mean  condition  came 
first,  into  Etruria  a  low  operator  in  sacrifices,  and  a 

soothsayer ;  *  *  *  a  priest  of  secret  and  nocturnal  rites.  These 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  571 

mysteries  were,  at  first,  imparted  to  a  few,  but  afterwards  com- 
municated to  great  numbers,  both  men  and  women.  To  their  re- 
ligious performances  were  added  the  pleasures  of  wine  and  feast- 
ing, to  allure  a  greater  number  of  proselytes.  When  wine,  las- 
civious discourse,  night,  and  the  intercourse  of  the  sexes  had 
extinguished  every  sentiment  of  modesty,  then  debaucheries  of 
every  kind  began  to  be  practiced,  as  every  person  found  at  hand 
that  sort  of  enjoyment  to  which  he  was  disposed  by  the  passion 
predominant  in  his  nature.  Nor  were  they  confined  to  one  spe- 
cies of  vice — the  promiscuous  intercourse  of  free-born  men  and 
women;  but  from  this  storehouse  of  villainy  proceeded  false  wit- 
nesses, counterfeit  seals,  false  evidences,  and  pretended  discov- 
eries. From  the  same  place,  too,  proceeded  poison  and  secret 
murders,  so  that  in  some  cases  not  even  the  bodies  could  be  found 
for  burial.  Many  of  their  audacious  deeds  were  brought  about 
by  treachery,  but  most  of  them  by  force ;  it  served  to  conceal  the 
violence,  that,  on  account  of  the  loud  shouting,  and  the  noise  of 
drums  and  cymbals,  none  of  the  cries  uttered  by  the  person  suffer- 
ing violence  or  murder  could  be  heard  abroad. 

"The  infection  of  this  mischief,  like  that  from  the  contagion 
of  disease,  spread  from  Etruria  to  Rome;  where  the  size  of  the 
city  affording  greater  room  for  such  evils,  and  more  means  of 
concealment,  cloaked  it  at  first ;  but  information  of  it  was  at  length 
brought  to  the  consul,  Postumius,  principally  in  the  following 
manner.  Publius  Aebutius  *  *  was  left  an  orphan  *  *  * 
and  was  brought  up  by  his  mother  Duronia  and  his  stepfather 
Titus  Sempronius  Rutilus.  Sempronius,  having  man- 

aged the  guardianship  in  such  a  manner  that  he  could  not  give 
an  account  of  the  property,  wished  that  his  ward  should  be  made 
awray  with.  *  *  *  The  Bacchanalian  rites  were  the  only  way 
to  effect  the  ruin  of  the  youth." 

His  mother  pretended  that  she  had  made  a  vow  to  introduce 
him  among  the  Bacchanalians ;  but  a  freed  woman,  a  noted  courte- 
san, at  one  time  a  slave,  warned  the  young  man:  "  'May  the  gods 
will  more  favorable!'  affirming  that  'it  would  be  better,  both  for 
him  and  her,  to  lose  their  lives  than  that  he  should  do  such  a 
thing;'  she  then  imprecated  curses,  vengeance,  and  destruction 
on  the  head  of  those  who  advised  him  to  such  a  step.  The  young 
man,  surprised  both  at  her  expressions  and  at  the  violence  of  her 
alarm,  bid  her  restrain  from  curses  for  it  was  his  mother  who 


572  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

ordered  him  to  do  so,  with  the  approbation  of  his  step-father. 
'Then,' said  she, 'your  step-father  *  *  *  is  in  haste  to  destroy 
your  chastity,  your  character,  your  hopes  and  your  life.' 

She  then  explained  to  him,  that  "when  a  slave,  she  had  gone 
into  that  place  of  worship  as  an  attendant  on  her  mistress  * 
but  that,  since  she  had  obtained  her  liberty,  she  had  never  once 
gone  near  it;  that  she  knew  it  to  be  a  receptacle  for  all  kinds  of 
debaucheries ;  that  it  was  well  known  that  for  two  years  past,  no 
one  older  than  twenty  had  been  initiated  there.  When  any  person 
was  introduced  he  was  delivered  as  a  victim  to  the  priests,  who 
led  him  away  to  a  place  resounding  with  shouts,  the  sounds  of 
music,  and  the  beating  of  cymbals  and  drums,  lest  his  cries,  while 
suffering  violence,  should  be  heard  abroad." 

The  young  man  refused  to  join  and  his  mother  and  step- 
father drove  him  from  their  home;  he  complained  to  his  Aunt 
Aebutia,  and  by  her  advice  gave  information  to  the  consul  Pos- 
tumius. 

The  consul  set  inquiries  afoot,  brought  the  matter  before  the 
Senate,  and  the  Senate  "published  a  reward  for  any  discoverer 
who  should  bring  any  of  the  guilty  before  them,  or  give  informa- 
tion against  the  absent.  *  *  *  Great  terror  spread  throughout 
the  city.  *  *  Informations  were  lodged  against  many,  some 
of  whom,  both  men  and  women,  put  themselves  to  death.  *  *  * 
Above  seven  thousand  men  and  women  are  said  to  have  taken  the 
oath  of  the  association." 

The  upshot  was,  that  the  Senate  published  a  decree — "that 
no  Bacchanalian  rites  should  be  celebrated  in  Eome  or  in  Italy. 

"Those  who  had  forcibly  committed  personal  defilements  or 
murders,  or  were  stained  with  the  guilt  of  false  evidence,  coun- 
terfeit seals,  forged  wills,  or  other  frauds,  all  these  were  punished 
with  death.  A  greater  number  were  executed  than  thrown  into 
prison;  indeed,  the  multitude  of  men  and  women  who  suffered  in 
both  ways,  was  very  considerable. 

"A  charge  was  then  given  to  demolish  all  the  places  where 
the  Bacchanalians  had  held  their  meetings." 

The  above  extracts  from  a  report  by  Livy  place  a  different 
light  on  the  Bacchanalia  in  Rome  than  is  usually  related  in  regard 
to  them.  In  Rome,  at  least,  they  were  simply  a  band  or  secret 
society  organized  for  debauchery  and  crime,  and  had  no  more  to 
do  with  religion,  than  have  the  naked  parades  of  the  Donkhobors 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  573 

in  Canada,  or  the  orgies  of  the  Skopsi  in  Russia,  or  than  had  the 
Inquisition  in  Spain  with  the  religion  of  the  gentle  Jesus. 

Tacitus  (fl.  about  the  end  of  the  First  Century  A.D.)  described 
a  secular  feast  as  follows:  "Remarkable  above  all  others  for  dis- 
play of  luxury  and  the  noise  it  made  in  the  world,  was  the  feast 
given  by  Tigellinus,  which  I  will  describe  by  way  of  specimen, 
that  I  may  not  have  to  repeat  the  instances  of  similar  prodigality. 
For  this  purpose,  he  built,  in  the  lake  of  Agrippa,  a  raft  which 
supported  the  banquet,  which  was  moved  to  and  fro  by  other  ves- 
sels, drawing  it  after  them;  the  vessels  were  striped  with  gold 
and  ivory,  and  rowed  by  bands  of  pathics  (lascivious  men  and 
women)  who  were  ranged  according  to  their  age,  and  accomplish- 
ments in  the  science  of  debauchery.  He  had  procured  fowl  and 
venison  from  remote  regions,  with  sea-fish  even  from  the  ocean; 
upon  the  margin  of  the  lake  were  erected  brothels,  filled  with 
ladies  of  distinction;  over  against  them  naked  harlots  were  ex- 
posed to  view;  now,  were  beheld  obscene  gestures  and  motions; 
and  as  soon  as  darkness  came  on,  all  the  neighboring  groves  and 
circumjacent  dwellings  resounded  with  music,  and  glared  with 
lights.  Nero  wallowed  in  all  sorts  of  defilements,  lawful  and  un- 
lawful; and  seemed  to  leave  no  atrocity  which  could  add  to  his 
pollution,  till  a  few  days  afterward,  he  married,  as  a  woman,  one 
of  his  contaminated  herd  named  Pythagoras  with  all  the  solem- 
nities of  wedlock;  the  Roman  emperor  put  on  the  nuptial  veil; 
the  augurs,  the  portion,  the  bridal  bed,  the  nuptial  torches,  were 
all  seen;  in  fine,  every  thing  exposed  to  view  which,  even  in  a 
female,  is  covered  by  the  night."  (Then  followed  the  burning  of 
Rome.)  "Not  all  the  atonements  which  could  be  presented  to 
the  gods,  availed  to  relieve  Nero  from  the  infamy  of  being  be- 
lieved to  have  ordered  the  conflagration.  Hence,  to  suppress  the 
rumor,  he  falsely  charged  the  guilt,  and  punished  with  the  most 
exquisite  tortures,  the  persons  commonly  called  Christians,  who 
were  hated  for  their  enormities.  And  in  their  deaths 

they  were  also  made  the  subject  of  sport,  for  they  were  covered 
with  the  hides  of  wild  beasts  and  worried  to  death  by  dogs,  or 
nailed  to  crosses  or  set  fire  to,  and  when  day  declined,  burned  to 
serve  for  nocturnal  lights." 

It  appears  then,  that  the  fornicating  festivals  of  the  an- 
cients were  not  really  religious  in  their  rites,  however  "divine" 
the  original  underlying  ideas  may  have  been.  The  ceremonial 


574  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

rites  were  recognized  as  corrupt,  and  the  prophets  of  Israel,  the 
philosophers  of  the  Pagans,  the  "sons  of  God"  everywhere  de- 
nounced them  and  tried  to  stop  them.  Ezekiel  said:  "Thou  hast 
taken  thy  fair  jewels  of  my  gold  and  of  my  silver  which  I  had  given 
thee  and  madest  to  thyself  images  of  men,  and  didst  commit  whore- 
dom with  them"  (xvi,  17).  And  the  kings  and  prophets  often  had 
the  priests  of  Baal  and  the  worshippers  of  Baal  put  to  death. 

Likewise  in  Koine,  when  the  iniquities  of  the  Bacchanalia, 
etc.,  were  introduced,  the  authorities  attempted  to  suppress  these 
practices;  but  the  "Mysteries"  were  secret  societies  and  what 
they  did  was  not  publicly  known;  when  it  finally  did  become 
known,  they  were  promptly  suppressed. 

To  represent  these  practices  as  the  authorized  ceremonials 
of  religion,  as  so  many  authors  on  this  subject  seem  fond  of  do- 
ing, is  misleading;  it  would  be  as  if  we  blamed  the  Christian  re- 
ligion for  the  sexual  perversions  St.  Paul  tells  us  existed  in  the 
churches  at  Corinth;  or  as  if  we  blamed  the  church  for  the  cele- 
brated " Disciplines  gynopygica"  (whipping  of  women's  buttocks) 
in  Bruges,  Belgium,  about  1550-1560  A.D.,  when  Cornelius,  a  priest 
made  the  women  who  came  to  him  to  confession,  undress  naked, 
and  then  whipped  them  on  their  bare  posteriors.  This  he  assured 
them,  was  conducive  to  their  eternal  salvation.  We  have  learned 
something  about  the  odd  beliefs  of  flagellation  on  the  bare  poste- 
riors in  previous  pages,  and  Cornelius  may  simply  have  revived 
some  of  these  strange  beliefs,  but  he  is  generally  credited  with 
an  erotic  desire  to  see  this  beautiful  feature  of  women's  bodies; 
possibly  he  had  learned  something  about  the  adoration  of  the 
buttocks  from  the  writings  of  Petronius. 

That  simple,  proper  coition  may  have  had  a  religious  signifi- 
cance in  an  age  when  sexual  functions  were  considered  a  sacred 
mystery,  is  not  only  possible  but  even  probable,  for  it  is  a  per- 
fectly proper  and  laudable  act  in  the  privacy  of  the  connubial 
chamber;  but  that  the  excesses  and  the  sexual  perversions  were 
religious  in  character  may  well  be  doubted;  these  were  due  to 
the  sinful  lusts  of  the  people,  and  were  encouraged  by  their  licen- 
tious and  libidinous  modes  of  living,  ~by  schools  that  taught  them, 
and  by  the  art  in  the  public  and  private  bath-houses  and  homes. 

In  India  there  are  even  yet  festivals  of  this  kind.  The  Ben- 
galese  are  worshippers  of  the  Saktis ;  eight,  nine  or  eleven  couples 
meet  at  midnight ;  they  set  up  a  nude  woman,  profusely  bejeweled 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  575 

and  worship  and  adore  her  with  strange  rites  while  they  indulge 
in  orgiastic  ceremonies.  This  is  spoken  of  as  Tantric  ivorship 
(taught  in  the  Tantras). 

And  human  nature  seems  to  be  the  same  everywhere;  pos- 
sibly our  "stag  parties"  with  the  dancers  "dressed  in  a  string 
of  beads  around  the  waist"  are  traces  or  survivals  of  the  festivals 
of  old,  still  persisting. 

WATER 

We  have  already  learned  that  water  was  regarded  as  a  sa- 
cred feminine  element  from  which  life  was  produced.  This  was 
a  very  logical  and  simple  conclusion  due  to  the  observation  that 
where  there  was  no  water,  there  was  a  desert  without  life;  but 
where  there  was  water  there  was  also  vegetation  and  animal  life. 

In  a  number  of  Cosmogonies  the  male  principle  impregnates 
an  "abyss  of  water"  which  then  gives  birth  to  living  forms.  It 
is  not  necessary  to  repeat  the  details — we  remind  only  of  the 
Bible:- — Gen.  i,  2:  "The  Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the  face  of 
the  waters.  *  *  *"  Gen.  i,  20:  "And  God  said,  Let  the  wa- 
ters bring  forth  abundantly  the  moving  creature  that  hath 
life.  *  *  *" 

This  idea  was  part  of  the  most  primitive  folklore,  and  was 
adopted  into  their  mythologies  by  many  people.  In  Greek  myths, 
Oceanus  was  a  god  who  begat  with  Tethys  a  number  of  children, 
the  rivers ;  this  was  a  nature  myth  explaining  how  by  the  evapora- 
tion of  water  from  the  ocean  clouds  were  formed,  from  which 
rain  was  precipitated  and  the  earth  was  fertilized  and  rivers  were 
formed. 

Tethys  was  the  greatest  of  the  Greek  sea-deities;  she  was  the 
daughter  of  Uranus  and  Terra,  and  became  the  wife  of  Oceanus. 
By  this  union  she  became  the  mother  of  the  chief  rivers  of  the 
world.  But  let  Hesiod  tell  us  of  her  children : 

"But  Tethys  to  Oceanus  bare  eddying  rivers,  Nile  and  Al- 
pheus,  and  deep-eddying  Eridanus,  Strymon  and  Maeander,  and 
Izter  of-fair-stream,  Phasis,  Rhesus,  and  Achilous  with  silvery- 
tide,  Nessus  and  Rhodius,  Haliacmon  and  Heptaporus,  Graniaus, 
Aesepus,  and  divine  Simois,  Peneus,  Hermus,  and  pleasant-flowing 
Caicus;  and  vast  Sangarius,  Ladon,  Parthenius,  Evenus,  and  Ar- 
descus  and  divine  Scamander.  And  she  bare  a  sacred  race  of 


576  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

daughters,  who  with  King  Apollo  and  the  rivers  all  earth  over 
bring  up  men  to  manhood  *  *  *  namely  Pitho,  Admete,  lanthe, 
Electra,  Doris  and  Prymus,  and  goddess-like  Urania,  Hippo  and 
Clymene,  Rhodia,  and  Callirhoe,  Zeuxo,  and  Clytia,  Idya  and 
Pasithoe,  Plexaure,  Galaxaure,  lovely  Dione,  Melobosis,  and  Thos, 
and  fair  Polydora,  and  Circeis  in  nature  amiable,  and  bright-eyed 
Pluto,  Perseis,  lanira,  Acaste,  and  Xanthe,  and  winsome  Petraea, 
Menesto,  and  Europa,  Metis,  Eurymone,  and  saffron-robed  Tel- 
esto,  Creneis,  Asia  as  well  as  desire-kindling  Calypso,  Eudora, 
Tyche,  Amphiro,  and  Ocyroe,  and  Styx,  who  truly  is  eldest  of 
them  all. 

"Now  these  were  born  eldest  daughters  of  Oceanus  and 
Tethys;  there  are,  however,  many  others  also;  for  thrice  a  thou- 
sand are  the  tapering-ankled  Ocean-nymphs,  who  truly  spreading 
far  and  near,  bright  children  of  the  gods,  haunt  everywhere  alike 
earth  and  the  depths  of  the  lake." 

The  rivers  became  gods,  or  became  the  dwelling  places  of 
gods.  This  idea  led  to  water  worship.  The  river-god,  or  the  river 
personified,  came  to  be  worshipped. 

The  River  Styx,  a  river  of  Hades  or  the  Underworld,  was  con- 
sidered a  very  sacred  stream,  by  which  the  gods  swore  their  most 
solemn  oaths.  Its  waters  were  poisonous,  which  idea  was  possibly 
a  survival  of  the  ordeals  by  drinking  poison,  or  "bitter  water." 
Such  ordeal  waters  are  also  mentioned  in  the  Bible:  "And  this 
water  that  causeth  the  curse  shall  go  into  thy  bowels,  to  make  thy 
belly  to  swell  and  thy  thighs  to  rot"  *  *  *  (Num.  v,  22). 

The  water  of  the  Styx  also  conferred  invulnerability ;  Achilles 
had  been  dipped  into  the  Styx  when  he  was  an  infant  and  could 
not  be  wounded ;  but  where  he  had  been  held  by  one  heel  the  waters 
did  not  touch  him,  and  before  the  city  of  Troy  he  was  killed  by  an 
arrow  striking  him  in  the  heel. 

The  River  Nile  was  a  sacred  deity  because  on  the  overflow 
of  this  river  over  the  land  depended  the  fertility  or  sterility  of 
the  fields  for  each  year;  to  invoke  the  goodwill  of  this  deity  a 
maiden  was  sacrificed  annually  in  ancient  times. 

When  this  river  rose  to  a  certain  height,  as  shown  by  the 
"nilometers,"  the  god  fertilized  the  earth  and  produced  great 
crops.  The  Nile  was  considered  to  be  an  image  of  heaven;  it 
took  its  source  in  heaven  (the  high  mountains  far  south  of  Egypt). 
The  Egyptians  mourned  because  the  sacred  river  was  devoured 


SEX   AND   SEX    WORSHIP  577 

(absorbed)  by  the  earth  and  was  finally  swallowed  by  the  sea; 
they  therefore  hated  the  sea,  and  considered  it  to  be  the  outcast 
of  the  earth. 

The  Ganges  River  is  a  sacred  river  in  India.  Pious  people 
make  pilgrimages  to  it  and  bathe  in  its  waters  to  wash  away  their 
sins.  Dying  people  are  brought  to  its  shores  to  be  consigned  to 
its  current  when  they  die  at  one  of  the  temple  sites  along  its  banks, 
because  then  their  bodies  will  be  carried  straight  to  heaven.  Or 
they  are  cremated  at  one  of  the  "burning  ghats"  and  their  ashes 
are  strewn  on  the  waters,  the  effect  being  the  same. 

Hindu  women  have  bathed  for  ages,  as  they  do  today,  in  the 
streams  and  tanks  that  are  used  also  by  the  men.  They  bathe  at 
the  same  hours,  stark  naked  as  are  the  men,  for  when  they  are  thus 
seen,  their  sins  are  forgiven;  when  only  partially  undressed,  only 
a  part  of  their  sins  are  washed  away. 

We  know  the  sacredness  of  the  River  Jordan  to  the  Chris- 
tians; it  became  so  because  Christ  was  baptized  in  this  stream. 
Water  of  the  Jordan  is  sometimes  brought  to  Christian  lands  to 
be  used  for  the  baptism  of  princes  or  important  personages.  Oc- 
casionally, at  some  of  the  world  fairs,  small  vials  said  to  be  filled 
with  water  from  the  Jordan,  have  been  sold  to  the  credulous,  so 
that  they  might  have  their  children  baptized  in  the  waters  of  the 
same  stream  in  which  the  Savior  was  baptized. 

There  are  various  views  held  in  the  Christian  church  about  the 
proper  way  of  baptizing ;  whether  the  ones  to  be  baptized  should  be 
infants  or  adults ;  whether  baptism  should  be  by  immersion  or  by 
"sprinkling;"  at  one  time,  and  even  now  in  the  Greek  Catholic 
church,  those  about  to  be  baptized,  had  to  be  naked;  at  baptisms, 
sponsors  were  permitted  or  even  required.  The  Church  of  Eng- 
land decreed  that  for  every  male  child  there  shall  be  two  god- 
fathers and  one  godmother  (polyandry?) ;  for  every  female  child 
two  godmothers  and  one  godfather  (polygamy?).  The  Council 
of  Trent  permitted  one  godfather  or  one  godmother,  or  at  most 
two  and  then  of  different  sex  (monogamy?) ;  but  monks  and  nuns 
could  not  act  as  sponsors,  as  the  names  "god-father"  or  "god- 
motlier"  would  have  been  reflections  on  their  vows  of  chastity. 
It  is  in  view  of  this  ruling  and  the  reason  given  therefor  that  the 
queries  are  inserted  above,  regarding  polyandry,  polygamy  and 
monogamy.  Baptism  is  a  rite  of  the  Christian  church  which  has 
taken  the  place  of  circumcision  among  the  Jews.  It  was  practiced 


578  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

before  the  days  of  Jesus,  who  was  himself  baptized.  It  exerted  a 
very  wonderful  effect,  according  to  St.  Paul:  "For  as  many  of 
you  as  have  been  baptized  into  Christ,  have  put  on  Christ.  There 
is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  there  is  neither  bond  nor  free,  there  is 
neither  male  nor  female;  for  ye  are  all  one  in  Christ  Jesus"  (Gal. 
iii,  27-28). 

But  the  equality  of  "male  and  female"  has  not  been  carried 
out  in  practice;  a  baptized  woman  is  still  considered  inferior  to 
man  by  many  of  the  believers  in  orthodox  Christianity;  in  fact, 
the  equality  of  women  with  men  and  the  wiping  out  of  sex  dif- 
ference in  social,  political,  and  religious  matters  has  its  greatest 
advocates  among  Unitarians  and  the  unorthodox,  or  agnostics. 

The  rivers  and  seas  were  peopled  by  water-sprites  or  water- 
nymphs,  called  Naiads  by  the  Greeks;  nymphs  were  supposed  to 
reside  in  all  waters,  creeks,  rivers,  lakes,  springs,  etc.  Then  there 
were  the  mermaids,  sirens  and  other  fabulous  beings  like  the 
Lorelei  among  the  Teutons;  they  claimed  the  people  who  were 
drowned  as  their  own,  and  avenged  themselves  on  those  who  tried 
to  save  drowning  persons,  by  drowning  the  would-be  rescuers  also. 

Then  there  was  also  the  idea  that  certain  waters  were 
holy— "holy  water."  The  use  of  holy  water  can  be  traced  back 
to  Jewish  and  Pagan  practices,  particularly  Thibetan  or  Roman, 
antedating  the  introduction  of  Christianity  by  centuries.  Exod. 
xxx,  18  et  seq.  commands  the  use  of  holy  water  for  the  use  of 
priests  in  Jewish  temples ;  for  an  extensive  account  of  * '  holy  wa- 
ters" read  also  the  forty-seventh  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Ezekiel. 
Holy  water  was  also  used  in  India,  Thibet,  Rome,  etc.  In  the  Cath- 
olic church  salt  is  added  to  the  holy  water,  but  it  is  not  definitely 
known  when  this  was  first  required;  the  use  of  salt  for  sacrifices 
or  holy  water  is  old,  however;  Lev.  ii,  13,  for  instance,  directs 
"with  all  thy  offerings  thou  shalt  offer  salt;"  its  use  for  adding 
to  holy  water  or  for  sacramental  purposes  was  already  mentioned 
in  the  Iliad,  and  by  Aristophanes  and  Plutarch. 

When  a  Roman  entered  a  temple  he  dipped  his  hand  in  a  vase 
with  holy  or  consecrated  water  which  stood  at  the  door.  He  then 
"adored"  the  gods  or  goddesses  in  whose  temple  he  was,  by  kiss- 
ing his  hand  and  then  waving  it  toward  them  ("throwing  a  kiss") ; 
or  in  the  adoratio  humilis  he  knelt  or  prostrated  himself  before 
the  image  of  the  deity. 

This  old  Roman  custom  is  preserved  in  the  Roman  Catholic 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


579 


church.  Whether  any  idea  of  sex  is  associated  with  the  use  of 
holy  water  is  somewhat  doubtful,  unless  we  see  in  the  use  of  a 
font  shaped  like  a  shell  a  survival  of  an  "argha"  or  East  Indian 
yoni  vessel,  associating  the  feminine  with  holy  water.  In  Persia 
"holy  water"  or  nirang  is  the  urine  of  cows,  therefore  associated 
distinctly  with  the  feminine. 

In  the  days  of  Dale,  as  recorded  in  his  Pharmacologia,  the 
excrements  and  urines  of  various  animals  and  of  humans  were 
used  as  medicines;  urine  is  even  now  taken  as  a  remedy  in  ob- 
stinate malarial  fevers  by  the  lower  classes,  but  I  have  not  found 
this  use  of  it  accompanied  by  any  preference  as  to  the  sex  of  the 


Fig.  368.— King  Pheron,  from  Welt-Gemaelde  Gallerie,  1740. 

person  from  whom  it  was  derived.  In  the  cases  where  I  have  met 
with  the  use  of  urine  as  a  medicine  each  person  took  his  or  her 
own  urine. 

In  an  encyclopedic  history  of  the  world,  published  in  1740,  I 
found  the  following  interesting  account  of  water  (urine)  as  a  rem- 
edy: "Pheron,  an  Egyptian  king  (successor  of  Sesostris,  fl.  about 
2300  B.C.),  was  becoming  blind;  the  oracle  ordered  him  to  sleep 
with  a  woman  who  had  not  slept  with  any  man  except  her  OWTI  hus- 
band (others  say,  to  wash  his  eyes  with  the  urine  of  such  a 
woman) ;  he  sent  for  a  great  number  of  Egyptian  women,  but  his 
eyes  did  not  get  well  until  after  he  had  slept  with  his  gardener's 
wife,  and  washed  his  eyes  with  her  urine.  From  this  he  concluded 
that  she  was  the  only  faithful  wife,  and  he  kept  her  for  himself 
as  queen.  All  the  others  he  had  slept  with,  he  concluded  were 
whores,  and  he  had  them  burned  alive"  (Fig.  368). 


580  SEX    AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

Whether  this  story  implies  that  there  is  a  special  virtue  in 
woman's  urine,  I  leave  to  the  judgment  of  my  readers. 

IS  THERE  AN  IMMORTAL  SOUL? 

The  belief  in  a  soul  is  an  element  of  very  primitive  animistic 
religions.  It  was  the  result  of  considering  inanimate  bodies  to  be 
endowed  with  properties  similar  to  our  own.  The  soul  was  con- 
ceived as  a  "life  principle"  even  in  medical  schools  up  to  seventy 
years  ago.  The  chemistry  of  the  carbon  compounds  was  called 
"organic  chemistry"  and  the  substances  considered  "organic" 
were  supposed  to  be  the  result  of  this  "life  principle"  and  that 
they  could  be  formed  in  no  other  way.  Every  thing  that  lived, 
plants  and  animals  as  well  as  man,  had  in  it  something  of  what 
was  conceived  as  soul. 

A  savage  saw  a  dead  friend  in  his  dreams,  and  he  was  sure 
he  had  seen  his  soul;  and  "soul"  and  "ghost"  came  to  mean  the 
same  thing  in  animistic  religions.  From  these  primitive  ideas 
developed  a  system  of  theories  about  souls,  even  up  to  the  highest 
ideas  held  by  the  most  enlightened  people.  In  quite  early  religions 
the  souls  were  called  anima  (breath),  umbra  (shadow),  manes  (the 
deified  souls  of  the  departed),  shades,  spirits,  etc.,  and  they  were 
supposed  to  be  formed  of  an  exceedingly  attenuated  substance; 
some  of  the  ancients  thought  they  were  composed  of  aether  which 
meant  atmosphere  of  the  upper  realms  of  the  sky,  not  the  chemical 
substance  we  now  call  ether,  but  more  nearly  like  our  ether  of 
space. 

Cicero  wrote:  "There  is  naturally  in  our  minds  a  certain  in- 
satiable desire  to  know  the  truth;  and  the  very  region  where  we 
shall  arrive,  as  it  gives  us  a  more  intuitive  and  easy  knowledge 
of  celestial  things,  will  raise  our  desire  after  knowledge.  For  it 
wras  this  beauty  of  the  heavens,  as  seen  even  here  upon  earth,  which 
gave  birth  to  that  national  and  hereditary  philosophy  (as  Theo- 
phrastus  calls  it)  which  was  thus  excited  to  a  desire  of  knowl- 
edge." *  *  * 

"Our  bodies,  being  compounded  of  the  earthy  class  of  prin- 
ciples, grow  warm  by  the  heat  of  the  soul. 

"We  may  add  that  the  soul  can  the  more  easily  escape  from 
this  air,  which  I  have  often  named,  and  break  through  it ;  because 
nothing  is  swifter  than  the  soul;  no  swiftness  is  comparable  to 


SEX    AND    SEX   WORSHIP  581 

the  swiftness  of  the  soul ;  which,  should  it  remain  uncorrupt  and 
without  alteration,  must  necessarily  be  carried  on  with  such  ve- 
locity as  to  penetrate  and  divide  all  this  atmosphere,  where 
clouds  and  rain  and  winds  are  formed;  which,  in  consequence  of 
the  exhalations  from  the  earth,  is  moist  and  dark;  but  when  the 
soul  has  once  got  above  this  region,  and  falls  in  with,  and  recog- 
nizes a  nature  like  its  own,  it  then  rests  upon  fires  composed  of  a 
combination  of  thin  air  and  a  moderate  solar  heat,  and  does  not 
aim  at  any  higher  flight.  For  then,  after  it  has  attained  a  light- 
ness and  heat  resembling  its  own,  it  moves  no  more,  but  remains 
steady,  being  balanced,  as  it  were,  between  two  equal  weights." 

After  the  time  of  Origen  (about  200  A.D.),  the  idea  of  attenu- 
ated materiality  became  changed  to  an  idea  of  immateriality,  or 
of  a  spiritual  nature. 

''Immortality  of  the  soul  is  a  speculative  idea,  inquiry  into 
which  is  warranted,  although  theoretically  neither  demonstrable 
nor  comprehensible,"  said  Kant. 

"It  is  not  impossible  that  there  may  be  a  future  existence. 
Our  happiness  or  misery  depends  upon  our  own  actions  here ;  ex- 
perience teaches  us  that  this  will  likely  apply  to  a  future  life 
also,"  said  Butler. 

The  belief  that  man  consists  of  body,  mind  and  soul  was  al- 
ready held  by  Plato.  It  is  a  very  general  belief  now.  A  spiritual- 
istic theory  is  that  man  is  not  only  material  as  to  body,  and  to 
some  extent  as  to  mind,  but  also  spiritual  (or  non-material)  as 
to  soul. 

A  materialistic  view  is  that  man  is  a  machine  which  in  action, 
performs  the  various  functions  for  which  it  is  adapted;  it  lives, 
moves,  feels  and  thinks,  and  when  the  machine  runs  down  and 
stops,  the  action  also  stops.  Descartes,  Moleschott,  Buechner, 
Vogt,  and  others  believed  thus.  As  one  of  my  teachers  in  the  med- 
ical school  said:  "Man  is  a  hothouse;  food  is  the  fuel,  and  the  ex- 
crements are  the  ashes;  thought  is  a  product  or  excretion  of  the 
brain,  just  as  urine  is  a  product  of  the  kidneys."  Materialistic 
ideas  are  not  over-popular  now,  and  scientists  are  content  to  be 
agnostics  rather. 

Both  the  views,  materialistic  and  spiritualistic,  have  many 
illustrious  adherents ;  so  also  has  the  agnostic  view  many  disciples. 

Homer  (1000  B.C.)  represents  Odysseus  as  having  an  inter- 


582  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

view  with  the  shades  in  Hades  (or  hell) ;  and  he  also  describes 
Elysium  (or  Paradise).  The  belief  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul 
is  therefore  very  old. 

In  other  passages  of  Homer's  writings  Hades  is  described  as 
a  dreary  place  where  the  souls  lie  in  a  lethargy,  not  dead,  but 
neither  conscious.  They  merely  lie  about  as  an  unconscious  man 
lies  after  a  paralytic  stroke;  surely  not  a  very  desirable  "immor- 
tality." 

Isocrates  (born  436  B.C.)  said:  "When  Ceres  (Demeter)  wan- 
dered from  one  country  to  another  in  quest  of  her  daughter,  *  *  * 
she  received  in  Attica  the  most  favorable  treatment.  *  *  *  The 
Goddess  was  not  ungrateful  for  such  favors,  but  in  return  con- 
ferred on  our  ancestors  the  two  most  valuable  presents  which 
either  Heaven  can  bestow  or  mankind  can  receive  *  *  *  the 
practice  of  agriculture  and  the  knowledge  of  those  sa- 

cred mysteries  which  inspire  them  with  the  pleasing 

hopes  of  a  happy  immortality." 

Herodotus  tells  us  that  the  idea  of  a  life  hereafter,  or  immor- 
tality, was  first  taught  by  the  Egyptians.  Their  temple  sculptures 
illustrated  their  ideas  on  this  subject;  observing  that  the  scara- 
baeus  insect  apparently  was  produced  from  dung,  they  deified  it 
as  the  source  of  immortality.  From  this  insect  immortality  was 
transmitted  to  the  gods,  indicated  by  dotted  lines  from  the  insect 
to  the  mouth  of  the  god,  since  life  or  breath  enters  by  the  mouth ; 
and  from  the  phallus  of  the  god  (the  source  of  life)  dotted  lines 
pass  to  the  mouths  of  mortals ;  this  illustration  is  plentiful  in  the 
temple  of  Karnak.  In  all  reverence  the  ancient  Egyptians  meant 
by  this  to  convey  the  same  idea  as  is  expressed  in  our  hymn: 
"Praise  God  from  whom  all  blessings  flow." 

Empedokles  (fl.  445  B.C.)  quotes  Socrates:  "Then,  beyond 
question,  the  soul  is  immortal  and  imperishable,  and  our  souls 
will  truly  exist  in  another  world." 

Herakleitos  (fl.  500  B.C.)  wrote:  "There  await  men  when  they 
die  such  things  as  they  look  not  for  nor  dream  of." 

On  the  other  hand,  Lucretius  (born  98  B.C.)  said:  "But  if 
perchance  the  soul,  in  the  opinion  of  any,  is  to  be  accounted  im- 
mortal the  notion  of  those  who  think  thus  is  evidently 
far  removed  from  just  reasoning.  For  besides  that  it  sickens 
from  diseases  of  the  body,  there  often  happens  something  to 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  583 

trouble  it  concerning  future  events,  and  keep  it  disquieted  in  fear 
and  harass  it  with  cares ;  while  remorse  for  faults,  from  past  acts 
wickedly  and  foolishly  committed,  torments  and  distresses  it. 
Join  to  these  afflictions  the  insanity  peculiar  to  the  mind,  and  the 
oblivion  of  all  things;  and  add,  besides,  that  it  is  often  sunk  into 
the  black  waves  of  lethargy." 

"Hoiv  then  can  souls  be  possessed  of  the  five  senses  ivhen 
all  the  organs  of  those  senses  have  perished?" 

Cicero  (born  105  B.C.)  discusses  immortality  at  length,  quot- 
ing the  opinions  of  many,  but  not  expressing  himself  distinctly  as 
believing  or  disbelieving,  so  that  it  almost  seems  as  if  he  was  what 
we  now  term  an  agnostic. 

Plato  (429-347  B.C.)  said  that  the  pre-existence  and  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul  were  traditional  beliefs ;  and  he  quotes  the  opin- 
ions of  Socrates  to  this  effect.  He  himself  tried  to  prove  the 
affirmative  on  both  these  propositions.  He  quotes  Socrates,  to 
this  effect:  " Death  is  merely  the  parting  of  body  and  soul. 

''The  soul,  if  pure,  departs  to  the  invisible  world,  but  if 
tainted  by  communion  with  the  body  she  lingers  hovering  near 
the  earth  and  is  afterwards  born  into  the  likeness  of  some  lower 
form.  That  which  true  philosophy  has  purified  alone  rises  ulti- 
mately to  the  gods. 

"The  soul  is  the  inseparable  vehicle  of  life,  and  therefore,  by 
parity  of  reasoning,  the  soul  can  not  admit  of  death,  but  is  im- 
mortal and  imperishable. 

"When  the  original  particles  wear  out,  and  the  bonds  of  soul 
and  body  in  the  marrow  give  way,  the  soul  escapes  delightedly 
and  flies  away.  This  is  the  painless  death  of  natural  decay." 

The  Stoics  were  founded  by  Zeno,  about  the  end  of  the  Fourth 
Century  B.C.  ;  they  were  a  sect  who  denied  the  existence  of  a  soul, 
and  of  course,  denied  an  existence  after  death. 

The  Hindus  believed  that  the  souls  were  alike,  emanating 
from  the  same  ultimate  spiritual  essence  (parama-brahman),  "as 
sparks  arise  from  the  fire,"  and  destined  to  return  thither. 

In  the  Zoroastrian  religion  Ahura  (The  Good)  and  Ahriman 
(The  Bad)  send  out  their  spirits  to  fight  for  the  souls  of  mankind. 
Man  takes  part  in  the  conflict  by  all  his  life  and  activity  in  this 
world.  By  a  true  confession  of  faith,  by  good  deeds,  by  keeping 
his  mind  and  body  pure,  he  aids  Ormuzd,  the  Power  of  Good;  and 
by  false  confession  and  evil  deeds  he  helps  Ahriman,  the  Power 


584  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

of  Evil.  The  life  of  man  is  divided  into  two  periods — the  part  he 
lives  here  and  the  part  he  lives  hereafter.  What  the  hereafter 
holds  in  store  for  him  depends  on  his  life  here ;  all  thoughts,  words 
and  actions  are  recorded  in  a  book;  at  death  he  comes  to  the  ac- 
countant's bridge  which  spans  over  hell,  but  reaches  to  heaven. 
If  his  merits  outnumber  his  demerits  or  sins,  he  is  permitted  to 
cross  the  bridge  and  go  to  heaven  at  once ;  but  if  the  evil  outweighs 
the  good,  he  goes  to  hell.  If  the  two  sides  of  his  ledger  account 
are  evenly  balanced,  he  goes  to  an  intermediate  state  of  existence, 
where  he  enters  on  a  probation  so  that  he  has  another  opportunity 
to  choose  between  heaven  or  hell,  to  one  of  which  he  will  be  as- 
signed on  the  day  of  final  judgment. 

Buddha  taught:  "Life  is  evil.  Karma  (sin)  is  the  cause  of 
this;  the  number  of  individuals  is  always  the  same;  as  soon  as 
one  individual  dies  his  credits  or  demerits  live  and  pass  to  another, 
until  finally,  by  the  accumulated  merits  of  many,  nirvana  comes." 
Nirvana  is  rest — Extinction — Eternal  Sleep  and  Peace.  Buddhism 
recognizes  no  immortal  soul. 

The  ancient  Greeks  represented  the  soul  as  Psyche ;  from  this 
we  have  such  terms  as  psychology,  metempsychosis,  psychopathia, 
etc.  In  art  Psyche  is  usually  represented  as  a  pretty  girl  with 
butterfly  wings;  butterfly  wings  therefore  designate  the  soul  in 
works  of  art  as  much  as  birds'  wings  are  characteristic  of  angels, 
and  bats'  wings  denote  the  devil. 

In  this  connection  we  may  consider  metempsychosis  or  trans- 
migration of  souls.  This  idea  was  based  on  the  primitive  belief 
in  regard  to  the  nature  of  souls ;  the  soul  was  the  vital  principle ; 
it  existed  in  the  air  and  was  taken  in  with  the  first  inhalation  of 
the  new-born;  it  caused  the  breathing  and  when  breathing  stopped 
the  body  died ;  which  means,  that  when  the  body  dies,  the  soul,  or 
breath,  leaves  it  and  returns  to  its  own  element,  the  air.  The  souls 
are  then  ready  to  enter  new  bodies,  either  similar  to  the  one  they 
left,  or  the  bodies  of  other  organisms,  so  that  an  animal  soul  in 
one  incarnation  may  be  a  human  soul  in  the  next  incarnation,  or 
vice  versa.  Whether  the  soul  in  metempsychosis  can  change  sex 
seems  unlikely;  because  the  prevailing  ideas  concerning  souls 
consider  sex  a  fundamental  characteristic  fixed  from  the  begin- 
ning and  for  all  time.  Such  is  also  the  expressed  opinion  of  writ- 
ers like  Krafft-Ebing  and  others,  who  ascribe  the  sexual  perver- 


SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP  585 

sions  to  the  entrance  at  birth  of  a  male  soul  into  a  female  body,  or 
a  female  soul  into  a  male  body. 

When  plants  were  first  recognized  as  being  alive,  even  though, 
as  then  thought,  non-breathing,  they  were  also  believed  to  be  acted 
on  by  a  life-principle  (animus,  pneumiis,  spiritus,  Psyche,  soul) 
and  Aristotle  ascribed  a  soul  to  plants. 

The  belief  in  transmigration  of  souls  originated  in  India;  it 
was  then  adopted  in  Egypt ;  from  there  it  was  taken  by  the  Greeks. 
Pythagoras  and  Plato  taught  it;  the  latter  believed  that  after 


Fig.  370. — "Psyche  at  Nature's  Mirror,"  from  painting  by  Thumaim. 

10,000  years  the  soul  returns  to  God  and  merges  in  him.  Some 
Jewish  writers  believed  it,  as  well  as  Origen,  the  Christian  church- 
father  ;  also,  Swedenborg,  Charles  Kingsley  and  others. 

The  ancient  gnostics  held  that  true  gnosis  or  knowledge  con- 
sisted in  remembering  the  pre-existent  state  of  existence  or  incar- 
nation, and  the  souls  which  could  do  this  attained  unusual  spir- 
itual powers ;  they  were  not  bound  by  the  ordinary  conditions  or 
conventionalities  of  life,  but  were  privileged  to  indulge  in  pro- 
miscuous sexual  indulgences,  including  incest,  and  the  partners 
of  such  holy  men  were  held  blameless.  This  was  a  great  induce- 


586  SEX  AND  SEX  WORSHIP 

ment  to  remember  one's  former  condition,  but  it  did  not  therefore 
sanctify  these  practices. 

The  Mormons  teach  that  souls  in  endless  numbers  exist  in 
the  invisible  world,  awaiting  a  chance  to  enter  into  a  human  body ; 
if  they  enter  a  human  body  they  get  a  chance  to  become  immortal, 
and  to  live  either  in  heaven  or  hell  after  the  death  of  the  body.  If 
they  do  not  enter  a  body  before  the  end  of  the  world,  all  that  have 
not  by  that  time  entered  into  a  human  body,  perish  utterly.  Hence 
it  became  a  duty  of  Mormon  women  to  give  birth  to  as  many  chil- 
dren as  possible  to  save  these  souls,  and  as  there  are  more  women 
than  men,  polygamy  was  adopted  to  increase  the  birth-rate. 

This  pre-existence  of  souls  was  a  very  ancient  belief.  Plato 
wrote :  ' '  The  soul  is  acknowledged  to  be  prior  to  the  body. ' ' 

We  have  already  learned  the  teachings  of  the  Kabbalah 
(p.  194)  about  souls;  it  taught  that  souls  pre-exist,  and  are  an- 
drogynous or  hermaphrodite.  When  the  souls  are  about  to  enter 
human  bodies  they  are  divided  into  their  two  halves,  one  male 
and  one  female,  and  when  the  bodies  they  enter  grow  up,  God 
causes  the  two  bodies  containing  the  parts  of  the  same  soul  to 
meet  and  to  marry  and  "they  twain  become  one  flesh,"  and  also 
one  soul. 

While  the  Kabbalah  claims  to  date  back  to  Adam's  time,  and 
that  it  contains  what  God  had  revealed  to  Adam,  it  was  in  fact 
composed  about  1000  A.D.,  and  the  ascribing  to  it  the  greater  age 
was  in  compliance  to  a  habit  which  was  indulged  in  quite  exten- 
sively, of  writing  books  of  prophecy,  after  the  tilings  prophesied 
had  occurred,  and  then  dating  the  book  back  so  as  to  make  it  ap- 
pear as  if  the  prophecies  had  been  made  before  the  fulfilment. 
One  such  book  was  called  the  "Ascension  of  Moses,"  which,  it 
was  claimed,  was  written  by  Moses  to  Joshua,  but  which  was  prob- 
ably written  in  the  early  period  of  our  era,  just  before  the  destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem.  Another  such  book  was  the  "Book  of  Enoch" 
which  was  ascribed  to  Enoch ;  in  Genesis,  chap,  v,  we  read :  * 
"  Adam  begat  Seth  *  *  *  Seth  begat  Enos  *  *  *  and  Enos 
begat  Cainan  *  *  *  and  Cainan  begat  Mahalaleel  *  and 

Mahalaleel  begat  Jared  and  Jared  begat  Enoch 

This  is  the  Enoch  to  whom  the  authorship  of  the  "Book  of 
Enoch"  was  ascribed.  This  book  was,  however,  really  written 
about  150  B.C.,  or  much  later  than  the  last  of  the  canonical  books 
of  the  Old  Testament.  It  tells  about  the  fall  of  the  angels,  how 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  587 

they  came  to  earth  and  married  the  daughters  of  men,  and  begat 
a  race  of  demons ;  \vhile  written  150  B.  c.,  additions  and  interpola- 
tions were  added  after  the  beginning  of  our  era. 

And  there  are  numbers  of  other  similar  books,  Jewish  as  well 
as  Christian,  which  are  spoken  of  as  the  Apocalyptic  Books;  the 
words  mean  Books  of  Eevelation,  but  as  explained  their  prophe- 
cies were  spurious,  because  the  events  prophesied  had  already 
happened. 

These  books  are  more  or  less  poetical  works  of  the  order  of 
Dante's  Divine  Comedy;  fantastic  descriptions  of  the  life  of  souls 
after  death.  The  Revelation  of  St.  John  is  the  most  important 
one. 

Origen,  one  of  the  church-fathers,  believed  in  the  pre-exist- 
ence  of  souls;  and  numerous  other  writers  expressed  a  similar 
belief. 

Lucretius  ridiculed  the  idea;  he  said:  ''Moreover,  to  imagine 
that  souls  stand  ready  at  the  amorous  intercourses,  or  parturi- 
tions, of  beasts,  to  enter  into  the  young,  seems  exceedingly  ridicu- 
lous. It  appears  too  absurd  to  suppose  that  immortal  beings  in 
infinite  numbers,  should  wait  for  mortal  bodies,  and  contend  em- 
ulously  among  themselves,  which  shall  be  first  and  foremost  to 
enter. ' ' 

It  is  not  necessary  to  inquire  into  the  seat  of  the  soul  in  the 
body ;  some  have  held  that  it  resides  in  all  parts  of  the  body ;  some, 
that  it  resides  in  the  blood ;  still  others,  that  it  resides  in  the  mar- 
row. The  ancient  Babylonians,  as  we  learn  from  cuneiform  in- 
scriptions from  the  library  of  Ashurbanipal,  2000  B.C.,  believed 
that  the  liver  was  the  seat  of  the  soul. 

We  will  quote  only  two  opinions  by  comparatively  modern 
authors;  Lotze  supposed  that  the  soul  resided  in  the  pons  varolii; 
Descartes,  that  it  has  its  seat  in  the  pineal  gland;  but  they  meant 
by  soul,  not  an  immortal  soul,  but  the  ' '  life  principle ' '  which,  when 
it  ceased  to  exert  influence  upon  the  body,  caused  death,  and  ceased 
to  exist  with  the  body. 

The  pineal  gland  is  usually  pointed  out  in  the  dissecting  rooms 
as  the  seat  of  the  soul,  but,  I  suspect,  not  in  a  serious  but  in  a 
ridiculing  manner. 

How  long  ago  it  was  when  the  Assyrians  and  Babylonians 
wrote  about  the  visit  of  Ishtar  to  the  Underworld,  may  perhaps 
not  be  definitely  known,  but  it  was  far  earlier  than  when  Moses 


588  SEX    AND    SEX   WOKSHIP 

wrote.  We  have  learned  that  when  anyone  entered  there,  they 
were  deprived  of  everything  they  wore — they  were  stripped  naked. 

This  idea  is  simply  an  expression  that  physical,  material 
clothing  can  not  cover  or  be  worn  by  a  spiritual  soul.  It  is  a  sim- 
ilar idea  as  that  held  by  Swedenborg  that  in  heaven  all  will  be 
naked,  because  clothing  is  the  livery  of  sin,  introduced  in  conse- 
quence of  the  fall  of  Adam  and  Eve,  and  therefore  clothing  would 
be  out  of  place  in  heaven  where  there  is  no  sin.  Likewise,  in  such 
poems  as  Dante's  "Inferno"  and  similar  apocalyptic  books,  the 
souls  are  described  as  naked,  and  they  are  so  figured  in  Dore's 
illustrations,  and  in  any  other  illustrations  of  the  souls  in  the 
underworld. 

The  ancient  Egyptians  were  the  first  to  formulate  distinctly 
the  theory  that  the  souls  of  the  upright  and  good  were  rewarded, 
and  the  souls  of  the  wicked  were  punished  in  the  future  life  (see 
page  447).  Their  god  Thoth  was  the  author  of  the  "Kitual  of  the 
Dead"  and  of  the  "Book  of  Eespirations"  which  protects  and 
sustains  the  souls,  gives  them  life,  and  causes  them  "to  breathe 
with  the  souls  of  the  gods  forever  and  ever. ' ' 

During  their  sojourn  in  Egypt  the  Israelites  necessarily  must 
have  become  acquainted  with  these  ideas,  but  they  did  not  adopt 
them,  for  the  immortality  of  the  souls  is  not  mentioned  in  the 
Books  of  Moses.  All  Jews  believed  that  God  dictated  the  laws  to 
Moses,  and  that  he  wrote  them  down  in  the  Pentateuch;  but  some 
also  believed  that  God  told  Moses  other  truths  which  were  not 
written  down  but  transmitted  orally.  The  Sadducees  said  that 
Moses  wrote  down  all  that  God  had  told  him,  and  as  Moses  did 
not  mention  immortality,  there  is  no  future  life. 

The  primitive  Jewish  conception  of  the  underworld  was  of 
an  entirely  different  character  than  that  of  the  Egyptians ;  it  was 
more  nearly  like  that  of  the  Greeks  in  regard  to  Hades ;  the  Jews 
called  it  Sheol.  In  the  English  Bible  this  is  indiscriminately  ren- 
dered "hades"  or  "hell;"  but  the  latter  word  does  not  mean  what 
it  means  in  Christian  theology,  for  the  Jewish  "Sheol"  was  a 
large  vaulted  tomb  where  the  ghosts  lay  like  corpses  in  a  sepul- 
chre, without  mind,  or  consciousness,  in  an  inexpressibly  dreary 
condition. 

The  Book  of  Enoch  was  similar  to  Dante's  poem  in  its  con- 
ceptions, and  is  the  first  mention  by  a  Jewish  writer  of  an  unend- 
ing punishment  of  the  wicked  in  hell. 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP  589 

When  we  consider  the  cruel  nature  of  all  ancients,  their  de- 
light in  seeing  others  tortured,  burnt  alive,  impaled,  crucified, 
flayed  alive,  hands  and  feet  and  nose  and  ears  cut  off,  eyes  gouged 
out,  bellies  ripped  open,  etc.,  we  can  get  some  idea  how  they  con- 
ceived their  notions  of  hell.  Also,  why  their  ideas  represented 
God  as  a  vengeful  and  bloodthirsty  God,  as  can  be  realized  by 
reading  all  the  horrors  Jehovah  threatened  against  Israel  in  the 
twenty-eighth  chapter  of  Ezekiel.  It  is  possible  that  the  horrors 
perpetrated  by  the  bloodthirsty  Huns  in  the  recent  war,  may  have 
been  from  a  desire  of  the  mad  Kaiser  to  live  up  to  the  cruel  stand- 
ards of  war  as  practiced  by  the  ancient  Jews  by  command  of  Je- 
hovah. 

However,  if  the  wicked  were  to  be  punished  forever,  it  was 
felt  to  be  but  logical  to  reward  the  good,  and  the  Egyptians  and 
the  Greeks  invented  a  heaven,  or  elysium,  or  paradise,  as  a  place 
of  reward. 

Perhaps  the  earliest  mention  of  such  a  place  is  that  by  Homer 
who  wrote:  "But  thou,  Menelaus,  son  of  Zeus,  art  not  ordained 
to  die  and  meet  thy  fate  in  Argos,  the  pasture-land  of  horses,  but 
the  deathless  gods  will  convey  thee  to  the  Elysian  plain  and  the 
world's  end,  where  is  Rhadamanthus  of  the  fair  hair,  where  life 
is  easiest  for  men.  No  snow  is  there,  nor  yet  great  storm,  nor 
any  rain;  but  always  ocean  sendeth  forth  the  breeze  of  the  shrill 
West  to  blow  cool  on  men." 

The  popular  Christian  belief  in  a  heaven  or  hell  was  not  based 
on  Biblical  teachings,  but  was  taken  in  greater  part  from  the  Book 
of  Enoch  and  other  apocalyptic  writings ;  and  later  on  it  adopted 
much  from  such  poems  as  Dante's  or  Milton's  descriptions  of  the 
spiritual  world.  Various  persons,  saints,  etc.,  Swedenborg  and 
other  religious  fanatics,  imagined  that  they  saw  heaven  and  hell 
in  visions ;  and  their  descriptions  added  new  features  to  the  pop- 
ular belief ;  and  they  were  perhaps  just  as  reliable  as  the  previous 
beliefs. 

Just  as  there  had  been  two  tendencies  in  the  early  Christian 
church,  one  condemning  as  evil  all  sexual  acts,  and  the  other  ap- 
proving of  honorable  wedlock,  so  these  tendencies  were  reflected 
in  the  theories  held  about  the  sexual  life  in  the  hereafter. 

Christ  said  (Matt,  xxii,  30):  "For  in  the  resurrection,  they 
neither  marry  nor  are  given  in  marriage,  but  are  as  the  angels  of 
God  in  heaven." 


590  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

Swedenborg  taught  explicitly  that  sexual  passion  will  survive 
after  death ;  he  says,  that  in  the  immortality  the  good  of  this  life 
will  become  angels  of  heaven  and  will  inhabit  the  three  degrees 
of  heaven,  the  inmost  of  which  is  nearest  to  God,  and  the  abode 
of  the  most  perfect  bliss.  To  quote  his  own  words,  from  Heaven 
and  Its  Wonders:  "The  angels  of  the  inmost  heaven  are  the  most 
beautiful  because  they  are  forms  of  celestial  love.  *  *  *  they 
are  naked,  because  they  are  innocent  and  innocence  corresponds 
to  nakedness. 

'  *  They  who  have  regarded  adulteries  as  abominable,  and  who 
have  lived  in  the  chaste  love  of  marriage,  are  beyond  all  others  in 
the  order  and  form  of  heaven  and  thence  in  all  beauty,  and  forever 
remain  in  the  bloom  of  youth.  The  delights  of  their  love  are  in- 
effable and  increase  throughout  all  eternity — ." 

The  words  of  Xenophanes  apply  here:  "There  never  was  nor 
will  be  a  man  who  has  clear  certainty  as  to  what  I  say  about  the 
gods  and  about  all  things.  But  all  are  free  to  guess. 

*  *  *  there  are  some  guesses  something  like  the  truth." 

The  early  church-fathers  were  fond  of  speculations  about  the 
soul  and  its  fate,  and  many  guesses  were  made  by  them;  only— 
they  had  an  idea  that  they  were  writing  facts. 

Paul  of  Tarsus  (St.  Paul)  was  a  Jew  who  was  converted  to 
Christianity,  and  his  teachings  are  among  the  most  important  in 
forming  the  Christian  faith.  He  taught  that  man  is  under  the 
influence  of  two  antagonistic  principles  (similar  to  the  Zoroastrian 
Ormuzd  and  Ahriman),  one  which  he  described  as  if  it  were  an 
evil  spirit  "which  dwells  in  men"  which  causes  evil  desires  and 
which  he  called  ' '  flesh ; ' '  the  other  element  in  man  fears  God  and 
tries  to  do  good;  this  is  "the  spirit."  Ultimately  one  or  the 
other  prevails;  if  the  flesh  triumphs,  the  soul  will  go  to  hell;  if 
the  spirit  prevails,  the  soul  will  be  saved  and  go  to  heaven. 

Augustine  raised  the  question,  whether,  when  God  separated 
the  hermaphrodite  Adam  (Gen.  v,  2)  he  also  took  part  of  the  soul 
and  put  it  in  Eve,  or  whether  he  blew  his  breath  in  her  nostrils 
and  created  a  new  soul  for  her,  or  whether  she  had  a  soul  at  all. 
A  council  of  the  church  seriously  discussed  the  latter  proposition, 
and  some  Orientals  held  that  women  have  no  souls. 

Aquinas,  Jerome,  Augustine  and  others  seriously  debated  such 
questions  as  these:  "Whether  souls  go  to  heaven  or  hell  immedi- 
ately after  death?"  "Whether  the  sun  and  moon  will  really  be- 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  591 

come  obscured  on  the  day  of  Judgment  ? "  "  Whether  all  the  mem- 
bers of  the  human  body  will  rise  with  the  body  on  the  last  day,  and 
whether  the  hair  and  nails  will  reappear?" 

Christian  theories  about  the  fate  of  the  souls  after  death  were 
simply  an  elaboration  of  the  general  Pagan  beliefs.  Early  Chris- 
tians believed  that  the  end  of  the  world  and  the  day  of  judgment 
was  at  hand,  and  that  Christ  would  return  to  judge  the  living  and 
the  dead. 

From  the  standpoint  of  sex  we  are  not  interested  in  the  de- 
tails of  the  evolution  of  the  Christian  doctrines  concerning  heaven 
or  hell  or  purgatory ;  so  we  will  close  this  part  of  the  subject  with 
a  few  words  about  the  rulers  of  hell. 

The  Jews  during  the  Babylonian  captivity  adopted  some  of 
the  beliefs  from  the  demonology  of  their  captors.  From  the  Jews 
these  were  adopted  by  the  Gnostics,  and  they,  in  turn  imparted  the 
belief  to  the  Christians;  some  critics  even  claim  that  Paul  held 
some  Gnostic  beliefs. 

The  belief  in  an  evil  power  was  as  strong  among  the  Chris- 
tians as  among  the  Zoroastrians.  The  devil  and  his  imps  were 
realities  to  the  Christians  up  to  quite  recent  times,  but  the  belief 
in  a  devil  with  hoofs  and  horns,  and  forked  tail,  and  wings  of  a 
bat,  in  a  lake  of  brimstone  and  fire,  is  becoming  less  strong,  al- 
though it  is  still  held  by  some  preachers,  who,  figuratively  speak- 
ing, love  to  hold  their  hearers  over  the  edge  of  the  abyss,  and 
threaten  to  drop  them  into  it. 

1  'The  Devil"  is  the  name  applied  to  the  Supreme  Evil  Spirit, 
who  is  supposed  to  rule  over  hell ;  he  is  also  called  Satan,  the  En- 
emy, the  Adversary,  the  Tempter,  the  Prince  of  Devils,  Beelzebub, 
etc.  In  alchemistic  and  magical  writings  he  is  called  Samae'l  (first 
used  in  the  Kabbalah) ;  the  Kabbalah  taught  that  there  are  seven 
hells,  or  different  compartments,  or  degrees  of  punishment,  which 
are  presided  over  by  Samae'l,  the  serpent  of  Eden. 

The  connection  of  the  devil  with  the  serpent  in  Eden  is  a  com- 
paratively late  theory,  which  is  not  warranted  by  any  passage  in 
the  Bible,  for  in  the  early  books  of  the  Bible  no  evil  spirit  is  men- 
tioned ;  God  himself  was  the  instigator  of  good  as  well  as  of  evil, 
for  God  "hardened  the  hearts  of  sinners." 

Whether  the  conception  of  a  devil  was  taken  from  the  Baby- 
lonian demonology,  or  from  the  Persian  (Iranian,  or  Zoroastrian) 
theories  about  Ahriman  is  immaterial;  to  the  early  Christians  he 


592  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

was  a  very  real  entity,  as  is  evidenced  by  I  Pet.  v,  8:  "Be  sober, 
be  vigilant;  because  your  adversary  the  devil,  as  a  roaring  lion, 
walketh  about,  seeking  whom  he  may  devour." 

The  form  ascribed  to  the  devil  by  the  Christians  is  probably 
derived  from  the  fabled  Greek  satyrs,  and  these  in  turn  were  sug- 
gested by  the  Mendesian  unions  of  humans  with  goats.  Modern 
Christian  theories  about  the  devil  are  more  like  the  Zoroastrian 
than  like  the  Babylonian  ideas. 

The  fallen  angels  of  the  "Book  of  Enoch"  became  the  devils 
of  later  theology ;  they  were  all  males,  like  the  angels  of  the  Bible. 

Paradise  was  a  Pagan  conception  of  a  place  where  the  souls 
would  revel  in  endless  festivities,  banquets,  drink,  etc.,  and  where 
there  is  an  endless  sensuous  bliss. 

The  Mohammedans  believe  that  Al  Sirat  (the  way)  is  a 
bridge  over  hell,  as  narrow  as  the  cutting  edge  of  a  razor,  which 
extends  from  earth  to  heaven;  truly — a  "narrow  path."  Heaven 
or  paradise  is  a  place  where  the  faithful  believers  will  enjoy  com- 
panionship and  sexual  pleasures  with  celestial  angels,  or  houris, 
forever  throughout  eternity.  Some  sects  of  Mohammedans  believe 
that  women  have  no  souls,  and  therefore  can  not  let  their  earthly 
jealousies  interfere  with  the  delights  of  paradise.  Araf  is  the 
Mohammedan  purgatory,  a  place  between  hell  and  heaven,  where 
souls  are  purified  by  burning  out  the  dross  or  evil  with  fire. 

The  Norsemen  believed  that  Valhalla  (Valholl)  was  the  place 
of  immortality  for  those  slain  in  battle ;  there  were  twelve  nymphs 
of  Valhalla  called  Valkyria,  who  were  mounted  on  fleet  horses 
and  armed,  who  went  into  the  battles  and  took  the  warriors  whom 
the  Norns  (fates)  had  chosen  for  death,  to  conduct  them  to  Val- 
halla, where  they  entertained  the  souls  of  the  slain  with  feasting 
and  drinking  of  mead  from  cups  made  of  the  skulls  of  their 
enemies. 

But  the  most  elaborate  system  of  heavenly  entertainment  is 
promised  by  the  Hindu  religion.  We  learn  from  Moore's  Hindu 
Pantheon  that  heaven  contains  many  apartments  or  degrees;  the 
analogy  to  the  Christian  heaven  in  this  regard  is  striking,  and  as 
far  as  relates  to  this  feature,  both  heavens  are  probably  derived 
from  the  same  folklore;  Christ  said:  "In  my  Father's  house  are 
many  mansions"  (John  xiv,  2). 

Special  names  were  given  to  some  of  the  separate  degrees  or 
stages  in  heaven;  for  instance,  the  paradise  of  the  god  Indra  is 


SEX    AND   SEX   WORSHIP  593 

called  Swarga,  which  is  the  residence  of  some  of  the  lower  gods 
and  of  deified  Hindu  heroes.  Now  a  Hindu  coming  to  the  lowest 
heaven  must  go  through  a  certain  routine  of  duties  which  includes 
a  certain  number  of  million  times  having  sexual  connection.  Mod- 
ern Hindus  believe  that  women  go  to  heaven  only  in  the  propor- 
tion of  20  women  for  every  108  men;  if  men  therefore  have  to 
wait  their  turn,  it  will  take  a  long  time  until  they  can  go  to  the 
next  grade  in  heaven,  where  they  stay  until  they  have  practiced 
coition  an  increased  number  of  times.  No  woman  can  go  higher 
than  the  eighth  degree  of  heaven;  so  after  that,  conditions  must 
vary,  or  perhaps  celestial  nymphs  are  provided.  At  all  events, 
heaven  is  a  place  of  physical  sexual  bliss,  long  drawn  out.  But 
time  has  no  significance  in  eternity,  especially  when  it  is  supposed 
to  be  so  pleasant. 

The  Jainas  (a  Hindu  sect)  say  that  their  first  great  preacher 
(maliavira)  appeared  on  earth  100,000,000,000,000  palya  ago;  a 
palya  is  the  length  of  time  it  would  take  to  empty  a  deep  well  one 
mile  square  stuffed  level  full  with  fine  hair,  by  removing  one  hair 
every  century!  And  this  refers  to  ''time;"  what  must  we  sup- 
pose eternity  with  its  many  millions  of  sexual  raptures  to  mean. 

Modern  popular  Christianity  has  modified  the  medieval  ideas 
of  heaven  and  hell  very  much.  "Christ's  kingdom"  is  not  a  place 
of  sensual  or  sexual  enjoyment,  but  promises  a  rather  monoto- 
nous existence  devoted  mainly  to  music  and  the  singing  of  hymns 
of  praise. 

It  is  conceivable  that  such  an  existence  would  become  as  tire- 
some as  life  became  to  Ahasuerus,  the  wandering  Jew,  of  whom  it 
is  related  that  when  Jesus  rested  for  a  few  moments  on  his  door- 
step on  his  way  to  Golgotha,  Ahasuerus  drove  him  away;  where- 
upon Jesus  told  him  that  he  should  not  die  but  should  wander 
until  the  Judgment  day,  without  rest.  Tradition  relates  that  he 
appeared  in  the  Fifteenth  and  Sixteenth  Centuries,  in  Hamburg, 
Augsburg,  Dantzig,  Liibeck,  Brussels,  Moscow,  Madrid,  etc.  This 
myth  is  probably  associated  with  the  folklore  tales  according  to 
which  certain  kings  and  emperors  (Nero,  Barbarossa)  and  saints 
(Enoch,  Elijah)  never  died;  perhaps  the  myth  was  to  teach  the 
undesirability  of  living  forever. 

A  modern  school  of  thought,  called  Annihilationists,  teaches 
that  only  the  righteous  will  live  forever;  that  the  wicked  or  "un- 


594  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

believers,"  will  not  continue  to  live  in  endless  torment  but  will 
die;  their  lot  will  be  eternal  death. 

Still  others  believed  with  Origen  that  God's  mercy  will  result 
in  the  final  conversion  and  saving  of  all  beings,  even  including  the 
devil  and  his  followers.  The  descent  of  Jesus  for  three  days 
to  hell  was  a  trip  to  bring  about  this  conversion.  In  modern  the- 
ology this  belief  is  spoken  of  as  "final  restitution  of  all  things," 
and  those  who  hold  this  belief  are  called  Universalists. 

We  were  born  without  our  consent  and  most  of  us  will  die 
without  our  consent;  we  are  helpless  and  passive  playthings  in 
the  hands  of  nature  or  of  the  gods.  So  we  may  as  well  meet  what- 
ever may  befall  us  as  philosophically  as  we  can,  doing  our  duty 
here,  and  trusting  for  the  future  to  the  power  that  created  us; 
remembering  the  lines  from  the  epitaph  of  Huxley : 

"And  if  there  be  no  meeting  past  the  grave, 
If  all  is  darkness,  silence,  yet  'tis  rest. 
Be  not  afraid,  ye  waiting  hearts  that  weep 
For  God  'still  giveth  his  beloved  sleep,' 
And  if  an  endless  sleep  he  will — so  best. ' ' 

CONCLUSION 

We  have  not  attempted  to  study  mythology  exhaustively,  nor 
to  gain  a  full  knowledge  of  the  deities.  But  we  have  sought  to 
trace  the  influence  of  the  mystery  of  sex  on  the  human  mind,  and 
especially  the  influence  of  sex  on  the  development  or  evolution  of 
the  religious  feeling  and  sentiment,  which  is  so  intimately  in- 
volved in  man 's  effort  to  explain  the  origin  and  destiny  of  our  own 
existence.  We  have  learned  how  the  human  mind  conceived  the 
Creative  Power  first  as  a  mere  physical  attribute  of  his  earthly 
father,  or  parents ;  that  this  power  became  spiritualized  and  per- 
sonified as  a  heavenly  father  (the  Aryan  Zeus-Pitar,  or  the  Greek 
Zeus,  etc.),  then  as  gods  like  the  great  Lucifer  or  Light-giver, 
the  sun,  the  moon,  planets  and  stars,  and  finally  as  the  "Father 
in  Heaven"  of  modern  Christianity;  we  have  traced  the  same 
ideas  running  through  primitive  folklore  all  over  the  world,  and 
from  this  common  reservoir  or  stock  of  ideas  the  different  na- 
tions and  the  various  religions  culled  their  ideas.  We  still  retain 
traces  of  all  the  previous  forms  of  religions  in  our  own  religions ; 


SEX    AND    SEX    WORSHIP 


595 


we  continue  the  use  of  the  finger-ring  as  a  relic  of  phallic  worship, 
just  as  the  lanugo  of  the  foetus  or  of  the  grown  up  human  being 
is  a  relic  and  reminder  of  the  fur  of  his  mammalian  ancestry ;  we 
speak  of  God  as  "our  father"  because  ancestor-worship  was 
one  step  in  the  evolution  of  our  religion ;  we  retain  a  faith  in  as- 
trology and  "thank  our  lucky  stars"  when  we  escape  from  some 
dangers,  because  planet-worship  was  practiced  by  our  ancestors; 
we  hold  our  hands  before  our  eyes  during  prayer,  because  untold 
numbers  of  our  forebears  prayed  to  the  sun  and  needed  to  shield 
their  eyes  when  they  turned  to  their  deity;  we  still  say  "by  Jove," 


Fig.  371. — Hercules  and  Ompliale,  from  painting  by  Boulanger. 

because  the  ancients  worshipped  Jupiter;  we  worship  the  virgin 
because  the  Egyptians  worshipped  Isis  and  we  call  her  Maria  be- 
cause the  Greeks  called  her  Maia;  we  speak  of  a  holy  family,  be- 
cause the  ancients  adored  deities  in  sets  of  "father,  mother  and 
baby;"  we  "feel  blue"  when  we  are  sad,  because  blue  was  the 
color  of  mourning,  and  still  is  so  among  the  Mohammedans,  whose 
women  dye  their  clothing  and  faces  blue  with  indigo  as  a  mark 
of  mourning;  we  use  the  sign  of  the  cross,  because  the  ancients 
used  the  pentagon  for  the  same  purposes ;  we  believe,  and  use,  and 
do  vast  numbers  of  things  and  rites,  because  we  have  inherited 
the  habit  from  our  ancestors.  As  these  customs  or  habits  or  be- 


596  SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP 

liefs  were  simply  steps  in  the  evolution  of  human  thought,  trans- 
mitted from  generation  to  generation,  even  though  modified  by 
generation  after  generation,  we  may,  if  we  so  desire,  consider 
this  gradual  development  of  thought  to  have  taken  place  in  ac- 
cord with  a  teleological  plan,  and  we  may  possibly  call  it  ' '  revela- 
tion," agreeing  with  the  adherents  of  all  religions  who  recognized 
their  "sons  of  gods"  as  the  great  teachers  to  whom  the  gods,  or 
God,  had  revealed  the  hidden  mysteries  of  the  universe. 

We  may  agree  with  Clemens  Alexandrinus  who  thought  that 


Fig.  372. — Christ  defending  the  adulteress. 

phallic  worship  was  simply  one  phase  of  nature-worship  which  led 
men  to  worship  the  heavenly  bodies  as  gods,  thus  replacing  the 
cruder  and  coarser  ideas  connected  with  the  phallus  and  the  yoni, 
and  which  in  turn,  eventually  led  mankind  to  fix  the  mind,  first, 
on  the  heavenly  bodies,  then  on  the  heavens,  then  on  the  Spiritual 
Powers  which  lived  in  the  heavens,  until  finally  they  came  to  a 
recognition  of  the  "True  God." 

Bearing  in  mind  this  gradual  evolution  and  expansion  of 
speculations  about  the  supernatural,  some  authors  have  described 
Christianity  as  a  system  of  Post-Christian  metaphysics  based  on 


SEX   AND   SEX   WORSHIP  597 

Pre-Christian  Paganism.  It  is  in  reality  more  of  a  theology  than 
religion;  it  demands  a  belief  in  myths  about  Jesus,  instead  of 
the  observance  of  the  religion  taught  by  Jesus,  who  summed  up 
all  the  law  and  all  the  prophets:  "Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord,  thy 
God,  with  all  thy  heart  and  with  all  thy  mind.  This  is  the  first 
and  great  commandment.  And  the  second  is  like  unto  it:  Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.  On  these  two  commandments 
hang  all  the  law  and  the  prophets"  (Matt,  xxii,  37-40). 

Jesus  said  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount:  "Judge  not,  that  ye 
be  not  judged"  (Matt,  vii,  1);  and  when  the  adulteress  was 
brought  before  him,  he,  knowing  human  weakness,  said:  "He 
that  is  without  sin  among  you  let  him  first  cast  a  stone  at  her" 
(John  viii,  7). 

Chubb,  an  English  theologian,  maintained  that  Christianity, 
the  Christian  religion,  should  not  be  a  doctrine  or  a  belief  in 
formulated  creeds,  but  a  mode  of  life ;  not  an  avowal  of  acceptance 
of  a  system  of  truths  or  facts,  but  an  effort  to  live  in  accordance 
with  God's  will  here,  in  the  hope  of  going  to  him  hereafter. 

"We  might  omit  the  last  phrase,  and  then  we  could  include 
many  in  our  definitions  of  "Christian"  who  now  are  looked  upon 
as  infidels  or  agnostics. 

The  Religion  of  Jesus  Is  Charity 

"And  now  abideth  faith,  hope,  charity,  these 
three;   but   the  greatest   of  these   is   charity." 

(I  Cor.  xiii,  13.) 

Men  are  thinking  for  themselves  and  they  realize  that  fables, 
myths,  traditions  and  superstitions  are  not  parts  of  a  vitalizing 
and  inspiring  religion. 

Men  recognize  that  all  religions  are  essentially  alike,  and  that 
the  forms  of  creeds  and  religious  observances  and  symbols  are 
human  inventions  and  non-essential;  that  that  religion  is  best 
which  makes  us  most  charitable  to  our  fellow-men,  and  which 
succeeds  best  in  promoting 

"On  Earth,  Peace, — Good  will  toward  Men!" 

"We  are  what  we  are  because  we  are  men  and  women!  And 
our  religions  are  what  they  are  for  the  same  reason. 


598  SEX   AND    SEX   WORSHIP 

We  have  learned  that  in  all  realms  of  human  thoughts  the 
influence  of  sexual  passion  has  made  itself  felt,  and  the  love  of  the 
man  for  the  woman  always  has  been,  is,  and  always  will  be  a 
most  powerful  factor  in  controlling  human  thought  and  action. 

This  idea  was  symbolized  in  such  myths  as  that  of  Hercules 
and  Queen  Omphale,  the  giant  man  controlled  and  subdued  by  a 
gentle  woman  through  love ;  or  in  that  of  Samson  and  Delilah,  the 
strong  man  lured  to  ruin  by  the  wiles  of  a  wanton  woman. 

The  most  remarkable  achievement  since  the  world  began  is 
taking  place  even  now — the  mental,  social,  educational,  econom- 
ical, political  and  physical  emancipation  of  woman;  this  has  been 
called  the  "Dawn  of  the  Age  of  Woman."  The  controlling,  re- 
fining and  chastening  power  of  pure  womanhood  is  making  the 
whole  world  better. 

Dogmas,  creeds  and  observances  are  fading  away,  but  spir- 
itual life,  morality,  love  for  our  fellow-men,  are  growing. 

"Woman's  Empire,  holier,  more  refined 
Moulds,  moves  and  sways  the  fallen,  yet  God-breathed 

mind, 
Lifting  the  earth-crushed  heart  to  hope  and  heaven." 

In  this  sense,  therefore,  nature-worship  may  be  considered 
as  a  revealed  religion  implanted  in  the  very  nature  of  mankind 
by  the  Almighty  and  Mysterious  Power  that  men  call  "God;"  a 
religion  which  led  man  from  his  primitive  mental  state,  step  by 
step,  to  better  religious  thoughts,  until  finally  all  that  is  coarse 
will  be  eliminated  from  our  faiths,  and  all  men  will  worship 

"One  God, 
as  a  Spirit,  in  Spirit  and  in  Truth." 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


The  following  is  a  partial  list  of  books,  etc.,  from  which  in- 
formation has  been  obtained,  that  has  been  utilized  in  this  book, 
both  for  the  text,  and  for  illustrations. 

Age  of  Reason,  Thomas  Paine. 
Alabaster's  Modern  Buddhist. 

Alterthuemer  Aegyptenland  's,  by  order  of  Frederick  the  Great. 
Ancient  and  Modern  Crosses;  Sex  Worship. 
Ancient  Faiths  Embodied  in  Ancient  Names. 
Ancient  Pagan  and  Modern  Christian  Symbolism. 
Anthropological  Society's  Journals. 
Appleton's  Encyclopedia. 
Appleton's  Science  Library,  60  vols. 
Archaeological  Society's  Journals. 
Aristophanes. 

Armenian  Outrages,  various  reports. 
Arrhenius'  Works  on  Geology. 
Art,  Rodin. 
Asiatic  Researches. 
Athenaeus. 

Banier's  Mythology  of  the  Ancients. 
Barlow's  Essay  on  Symbolism. 
Earth's  Religions  of  India. 
Baseler  Todten-Tanz  (Death-Dance). 
Beale's  Legend  of  Buddha. 
Bible;  American  Bible  Society's  text,  1816. 
Bonwick's  Egyptian  Beliefs. 
Borlase's  Antiquities  of  Cornwall. 
British  Encyclopedia. 
Burgess'  Elephanta. 
Campbell's  Phallic  Worship. 
•  Casanova's  Autobiography. 
Catullus. 
Charaka-Samhita,  ancient  Hindu  medical  work. 

599 


600  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Clarke's  Travels. 

Classical  Journal. 

Clavis  Sapientiae  (Key  to  Wisdom),  1549. 

Coleman's  Mythology  of  the  Hindus. 

Comte's  Works. 

Cory's  Ancient  Fragments. 

Cory's  Mythological  Inquiries. 

Gust's  Pictures  of  Indian  Life. 

Dante's  Divine  Comedy  (Inferno,  etc.). 

Darwin's  Descent  of  Man. 

Darwin's  Origin  of  Species. 

Dean's  Serpent  Worship. 

Diodorus  Siculus. 

Draper's  Conflict  of  Science  and  Religion. 

Drummond,  Natural  Law  in  the  Spiritual  World. 

Edkin's  Chinese  Buddhism. 

Faber's  Origin  of  Pagan  Idolatry. 

Ferguson's  Palaces  of  Nineveh. 

Ferguson's  Serpent  Worship. 

Fiske's  Excursions  of  an  Evolutionist. 

Fiske's  Destiny  of  Man  in  the  Light  of  his  Origin. 

Forbes'  Oriental  Memoirs. 

Forlong  's  Eivers  of  Life. 

Geddes  &  Thompson,  Evolution  of  Sex. 

Geographical  Society's  Magazine. 

Gorin's  Etruscan  Antiquities. 

Gould's  Curious  Myths  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

Gould's  Origin  of  Eeligious  Beliefs. 

Gumbach's  Historical  Antiquities. 

Haeckel's  Works. 

Haslam's  Cross  and  the  Serpent. 

Herodotus. 

Higgin's  Anacalypse. 

Higgin's  Druids. 

Hislop's  Two  Babylons. 

History  of  Medicine,  7  volumes,  Kurt  Sprengel. 

History  of  the  Cross,  ( ?). 

History  of  the  Rod,  Rev.  Wm.  Cooper. 

Howard,  Phallic  Worship. 

Hue's  Travels 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  601 

Huxley's  Works. 

Ingersoll's  Lectures. 

Inman's  Ancient  Faiths. 

Isis  Unveiled,  Mine.  Blavatzky. 

Kenrick's  Ancient  Egypt. 

Kingsborough's  Mexican  Antiquities. 

Knight's  Symbolical  Language  of  Ancient  Art. 

Knox,  Book  of  Martyrs. 

Koerperstrafen  (Corporal  Punishments),  Dr.  Wrede. 

Koran. 

Krafft-Ebing,  Psychopathia  Sexualis. 

Kurfuersten-Bibel,  1794. 

Latin-English  Dictionary,  White  and  Kiddle. 

Layard's  Nineveh. 

Leckey's  History  of  European  Morals. 

Legge's  Chinese  Classics. 

L'Egypte,  by  order  of  Napoleon  I. 

Lewis'  Origines  Hebraeae. 

Library  of  Original  Sources,  10  vols. 

Lombroso  's  Works. 

Masculine  Cross  and  Ancient  Sex  Worship  (Slia  Rocco). 

Milton's  Paradise  Lost. 

Mitra's  Antiquities  of  Orissa. 

Moore's  Hindu  Pantheon. 

Moore's  Oriental  Fragments. 

Musee  Secret  (Pompeian  wall  paintings,  utensils,  etc.). 

Musentempel,  art  plates  of  18th  Century. 

Mythology,  2  volumes,  M.  K.  Halevy. 

Mythologies,  various  works. 

Nordau's  works. 

O'Brien's  Round  Towers  of  Ireland. 

Oort's  Worship  of  Baalim. 

Osborn's  Men  of  the  Old  Stone  Age. 

Osburn's  Monumental  Egypt. 

Osburn's  Antiquities  of  Egypt. 

Phallism,  A  Description  of  Worship  of  Lingam-Yoni. 

Phalli  sin,  Worship  of  Lingam,  Yoni  and  Crosses,  1889. 

Perret's  History  of  Art  in  Chaldea  and  Assyria. 

Petrie's  Round  Towers  of  Ireland. 

Plutarch's  Lives. 


602  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Prang's  Atlas  of  Art. 

Prescott's  Conquest  of  Mexico. 

Propertius. 

Rawlinson  's  Ancient  Egypt. 

Rawlinson  's  Ancient  Monarchies. 

Renonf 's  Hilbert  Lectures  for  1879. 

Rimmer's  Ancient  Stone  Crosses. 

Rollin's  Ancient  History. 

Ruskin's  Works. 

Sanger  's  History  of  Prostitution. 

Science  History  of  the  Universe. 

Science,  Magazine. 

Seeley's  Wonders  of  Ellora. 

Sellow's  Annotations  of  Sacred  Books  of  Hindus. 

Shaw's  Travels. 

Sivartha's  Book  of  Life. 

Smiddy's  Druids  and  Towers  of  Ireland. 

Spencer's  (Herbert)  works. 

Standard  Dictionary. 

Swedenborg's  Writings. 

Tacitus. 

Thirty-Seven  Nats  in  Burmah. 

Tibullus. 

Tiele's  History  of  Egyptian  Religion. 

Took's  Pantheon. 

Twenty  Years  in  a  Harem. 

Universal  Dictionary. 

Vogt's  (Karl)  works. 

Welt-Gemaelde  Gallerie,  17  vols,  1740-1780. 

Westropp's  Symbol  Worship. 

William's  Hinduism. 

Wilson 's  Essays  on  Hinduism. 

Illustrations  were  copied  from  many  of  the  above-mentioned 
books,  and  also  from  large  collections  of  Photographs  and  Prints 
of  Paintings,  Sculptures,  Photographs  of  Art  Models  from  na- 
ture, Erotica,  Perversions,  etc. 

International  Studio. 
Craftsman. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  603 

Fine  Arts  Journal. 

Works  on  Art. 

Suetonius  and  other  ancient  writers. 

Underwood  and  Underwood's  Photographs. 

IJeports  on  Excavations  in  various  lands,  Assyria,  Egypt, 
Babylon,  Nineveh,  India,  Koine,  Pompeii,  Herculaneum, 
Greece,  etc. 

Books  on  Travel,  Constantinople,  Turkey,  India,  Persia,  Yu- 
catan, etc. 

Histories,  Biographies,  Works  on  Geology,  Palaeontology, 
Folklore,  Superstitions,  Witchcraft,  etc. 

Impressions  of  Medals  and  Seals. 

Current  Literature,  Literary  Digest,  Magazines,  Works  on 
the  Religions  of  various  lands,  and  other  books,  the  titles 
of  which  I  can  not  recall  now. 


GENERAL  INDEX 


Abracadabra,  466 

Abraxas  medals,  390 

Adam  a  hermaphrodite,  5,  139 

Aesculapius,   535 

Age  of  earth,  23 

Age  of  mankind,  20,  23 

Agnosticism,   319 

Agrionia,  570 

Alalus,  26,  28 

Amor  or  Cupid,  453 

Anabolism,  52 

Ancestor  worship,  114 

Ancient  men,  325 

Angels,   370 

Animals,  sex  in,  138 

Animal   worship,   430 

Anthropophagy,   251 

Antichrist,   102 

Antiquity  of  the  cabaret,  232 

Anu,  383 

Aphrodite,  birth   of,   108 

Apis  bull,  431 

Asher,  383 

Arches,  471 

Arrow,  385,  399 

Art  anatomy,  303 

Art  and  ethics,  269 

Atavism,  59 

Atheism,  320 

Avesta,  124 

B 

Baal,  439,  441 

Babylonian    account    of    creation,    110 
Babylonian  gods,  438 
Bacchanalia,  570 
Beliefs,  primitive,  341 
Bible,   9 

Brahmanic,  111 

of  Greeks,  106 

on  woman,  85 

origin   of,   12 


Bibles,  7,  8 

Biblical   cosmogony,   91 

Bodies,   mature,   310 

of  children,   309 

youthful,  309 
Book  of  life,  486 
Bosom  of  woman,  259 
Botanomancy,  414 
Brahma,   8 
Brahmanic  bible,  111 
Breast,    156 
Breast  worship,  488 
Breeding  of  live-stock,  27 
Bride,  perfuming  of,  238 
Buddha,  16 
Buddhism,  14,  17,  112 
Budding,  50 
Bull,  worship   of,  431 
Burning  at  stake,  340 
Burnt  offerings,  220 

C 

Cabaret,   antiquity   of,   232 

origin  of,  232 
Cannibalism,  251 
Castration,   212 
Caves,  121 
Celibacy,  205 
Census   on   woman,   89 
Charms,  361 
Chastity  belts,  83 
Children's  bodies,  309 
China,  460 
Cock  worship,  438 
Communism,   73 
Conception,  immaculate,   518 
Conclusion,   594 
Concubinage,   202 
Confucius,    16 
Conjugation,    51 
Coition,   160 

how  often,  174 
Cosmic  egg,  126 


604 


GENERAL    INDEX 


605 


Cosmogonies,  Pagan,  113 

various,  90,  118 
Cosmogony,  Biblical,  91 
Creation,   Babylonian   account,   110 

of  the  world,  Philo,  104 
Credulity,  314 
Cross,  origin  of,  403 
Crux  ansata,  359 
Cupid  or  Amor,  453 

D 

Daemones,   Greek,   370 

Dance,  263 

Darwinism,   22 

David's  shield,  523 

"Days"  of  Genesis,  97,  104 

Days  of  the  week,  99 

Death,  40 

Death-angel,  41 

Demiurge,  122 

Determination  of  sex,  60 

Devil,  591 

Diana  of  Ephesus,  497,  499 

Dimples,  259 

Dionysia,   566 

Dionysus,   399,   455 

Disease  demons,  328 

Double   standard   of  morals,   199 

Dryads,  369 

E 

Egg,  491 

cosmic,  126 
Egyptian  gods,  445 
Elephanta,  cave  of,  6 
Eleusinian   mysteries,   56S 
Ellipse,  475 
Epithalamium,   564 
Erotic  art,  301 
Eunuchs,  211 
Evolution  of  sex,  53 
Exorcism,   361,   366 

F 

Face,  255 

Eates,  or  Paroao,  390 
Father   Time,  450 
Fauns,  367 
Feet,  and  legs,  262 
Female,  52,  150 
Feminine,  462 
Feminine  symbols,  463 


Feminine  triangle,  463 
Fertility  symbol,  467 
Festivals,   Nehemiah,    102 
Festivals,  phallic,  557 
Fish   in   symbolism,    101 
Fission,  49 
Floods,  125 
Floralia,   568 
Form  of  woman,  257 
Forms   of   perfumery,   233 

G 

Gemetria,  102 

Gender  of  plant  names,  131 
Genesis,  days  of,  97,  104 
Genii,  Roman,  370 
Ghosts,  worship  of,  115 
Gnostic  symbol,  523 
Goat  worship,  435 
God  as  "father,"  7 
God   hermaphrodite,   139 
Goddesses,  508 
Goddess  of  Reason,  504 
Gods,  Babylonian,  438 
Egyptian,  445 

Greek,  449 

Indian,  456 

like  men,  375 

Persian,  443 

Phoenician,  441 

some   of   the,   438 
Golden  rule,  16 
Greek  Bible,  100 
Greek  gods,  449 
Greek  love,  58,  560 
Groves,  411 

II 

Hades,  588 
Hair,  256 
Harem,  188 

meaning  of,  187 
Has  a  woman  a  soul?  70,  590 
Hearing,  sense  of,  248 
Hell,   588 
Heredity,   305 
Hermaphrodite  deities,  3 
Hermaphrodites,  212 
Ilermaphroditism,  58 
Hesiod's   writings,    107 
Hindu  phallic  symbols,  528 


606 


GENERAL    INDEX 


Hindu  trinity,  8 

Hoa,  383 

Holy  families,  406 

Holy  water,  575 

Homer's  writings,  106 

Human  sacrifices,  222,  224 

Hygeia,   535 

I 

Iconoclasts,   526 
Idealization,   289 

in  art,  287 
Idols,  348 
Ikons,  526 
Images,  348 

Immaculate  conception,  518 
Immortality,  580 
Impregnation,   55 
Incense,  228 
Incest,  374 
Indian  gods,  456 
Indra,    9 
Infanticide,    72 
Inferiority  of  women,  69 
Instinct,  sexual,  166 
Is  there  a  soul?     580 
Ish  tar's  trip  to  Hades,  440 
Isis,  432,  446,  448 

J 

Japan,  461 

Jupiter  or  Zeus,  451 

K 

Kabbalah,  193 
Katabolism,  53 
Kiss,  249 
Kissing,  479 
Koran,  13 

L 

Lamaism,  18 
Law  of  the  sea,  506 
Legend  of  Sargon,  96 
Legs  and  feet,  262 
Liberalia,  565 
Life,  nature  of,  140 
Lingam,  382 
Lingam  in  India,  458 
Lotus,  412 
Love  charms,  250 
Lucky  days,  103 


Lupercalia,  569 
Lycanthropy,    321 


M 


Madonna  worship,   488 
Male,  53,  157 
Male  triangle,  394 
Mammary  gland,  156 
Man  of  Java,  25 
Mandrakes,  417 
Mandaeans,   123 
Marriage,   179 

by  capture,  185 

by  theft,  186 

of  sun  and  moon,  414 

to   trees,   130 
Masturbation,  162 
Mature  bodies,  310 
Medals,  477 
Menses,  152 
Menstruation,  152 
Metempsychosis,  584 
Mexico,  461 
Mistletoe,  416 
Monogamy,   192 

among  gods,  376 
Monthlies,   152 
i   Months,   98 
Monstrosities,   59 
Morganatic  marriages,  203 
|   Myths,  327 

N 

Naiads,  369 
Names  of  the  days,  99 
Nations   without  religion,   118 
Nature  of  life,  140 

of  sex,  38 
Navel,  123 

Nehemiah  on  festivals,  102 
Nirvana,   584 
Norns,  361,  406 
Nose,  structure,  216 
Nudity,  275,  294 
Numbers,  sex  of,  104 
Numeration,    ancient,    102 
Nymphs,   368 

O 

Odophone,  Piesse,  231 
Odor    as   sexual   stimulant,   242 

rutting,  177 


GENERAL    INDEX 


GOT 


Ouauism,  163 
Origin  of  animals,  5 

of  religion,  114,  116,  324 
Osiris,  446 
Osiris  Myth,  448 
Ovum,  human,  153 


Pan,  391 
Paradise,  589 
Parcae,  or  Fates,  390 
Partheno-genesis,  57,  494 

in  insects,  64 
Passion,  sexual,  175 
Pentagram,  361 
Perfume  for  gods,  218 
Perfume   for  humans,  230 
Perfumery,  213 
Perfumes,  forms  of,  233 
Perfuming  a  bride,  238 
Persecutions,  337 
Persian  gods,  443 
Perversions,  171 
Phallic  festivals,  557 

symbols,   387 

symbols  on  houses,  405 
Phallus,  159 

worship  of,  377 

Philo's   statement   about  Adam,   5 
Philo   on   creation,    104 
Phoenician   gods,  441 
Pitcairn  Island,  28 
Plant  names,   422 

gender  of,  131 
Plant  worship,  408 
Plants,   fertilization   in,   136 

sex,  127 

Plato's  statement  about  man,  5 
Polyandry,  187,  200 
Polygamy  among  gods,  376 
Polygyny,   187 
Prapathaka,  112 
Pregnancy,    153,   154 
Primitive  beliefs,  341 
Primitive  man,  35 
Promiscuous    relations,    183 
Proportions  of  body,  304 
Prostitution  in  Rome,  560 
Protoplasts,  122 
Psyche,  584 


Purusha,  5 
Pyramid,   394 


Qu'ran,   13 


li 


Races  of  man,  34 

Rape,  374 

Realism,  289 

Relations  men  to  women,  179 

Religion,   meaning  of,   6 

origin  of,  114,  116,  324 
Reproduction,  48 

asexual,  49,  51 

sexual,  54 
Rig  Veda,  8,  457 
River  gods,  576 
Romance  of  plant  names,  422 
Rudra,  storm  god,   112 
Rutting  odor,  177 

8 

Sacred  writings,  7 
Sacrifices,  218 

human,  222 
Sargon,  legend  of,  96 
Satyrs,  368 
Sculpture,   292 
Seals,  477 
Sense  of  hearing,  248 

of  sight,  253 

of  smell,  213 

of  taste,  249 

of  touch,  253 
Serpent    worship,    534 

in  paradise,  538 
Seven  great  gods,  99 
Sex,  ancient  theories  of,  140,  142 

determination   of,   60 

evolution  of,  53 

in  animals,  138 

in  gods,  360 

in  mankind,  138 

in  plants,  127 

meaning  of,  2 

nature  of,  38 

of  numbers,   104 

symbols  in  science,  531 
Sexual  instinct,   166 
Sexual  organs,   female,   151 


608 


GENERAL   INDEX 


Sexual  organs,  male,  159 

Sexual  passion,  175 

Sexual  union  among  deities,  522 

Shell,  472 

Shintoism,   14 

Sight,  sense  of,  253 

Sileni,  368 

Sirens,  373 

Sistrum,   469 

Six,  Philo,  104 

Siva,   8 

Skopsi,  211 

Smell,  sense  of,  213 

Social  relations,  179 

Son  of  God,  373 

Soul,    580 

Spermatozoa,   discovery   of,   .1-1!) 

Spermatozoon,   158 

Spread  of  ideas,  31 

Spread  of  mankind,  30 

Status  of  woman,  66 

Sun  and  moon  worship,  544 

Sunday,    101 

Swastika  symbol,  523 

Symbols,  116 

of  sex  union,  529 

T 

Taoism,  16 
Taste,  sense  of,  249 
Temptation  St.  Anthony,  400 
Theories  of  sex,   140 

ancient,  142 
Totemism,   128 
Touch,  sense  of,  253 
Transmigration  of  souls,  f>.S4 
Triangle,   feminine,  463 
Triangle,  male,  387,  394 
Trimurti,  8 
Trinity,  404 

Salerno,  390 
Twelve  great  gods,  98 
Thyrsus,  399 


U 

Unlucky  days,  103 
Unlucky   numbers,    103 
Urine  as  a  remedy,  579 
Urine  as  holy  water,  579 

V 

Valkyrs,  372 
Vampires,  362 
Vedas,  8,  456 
Venus,  birth  of,  108 
Virgin  worship,  494 
Vishnu,  8 

Vulgarity  in  art,  287 
Vulva,  464 

w 

Waist,  261 
Water,  575 
Wedding  ring,   530 
Weeks,  98 
Were  wolves,  362 
Whipping  of   women,   82 
Witchcraft,    46,    322 
Women,  mortal,  519 
Worship    of    ancestors,    115 

of  animals,  430 

of  navel,  123 

of  plants,  408 

of  planets,  544 

of  sun,   moon,   and   stars,   544 

of  woman,  507 
Writings,  saered,   7 


Years,  97 
Yoni,  464 
Youthful  bodies,  309 

Z 

Zeus   or  Jupiter,  451 


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